World Bank to fund $600m across Jharkhand projects

The World Bank has announced a financial support of $600m (around Rs 3,870 crore) to the Indian state of Jharkhand for four new projects, in the next 2-3 years.

While, one of them is a water supply and sanitation project, another one is for improving power transmission capacity in the state.

The announcements in this connection were made by the World Bank Country Director in India Junaid Ahmad, after his meetings with the Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das.

A project named as the Jharkhand Municipal Development Project will be undertaken by the state government with a funding of $300m to deliver its citizens with sustainable basic amenities like water supply and sanitation. These are expected to be done by improving the capacity of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to carry out policy reforms and establish systems that will enable them handle their resources in a better way amid increased accountability.

World Bank Country Director Junaid Ahmad with Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das. Photo courtesy of World Bank.

Junaid Ahmad said: “Jharkhand is a key state in India’s growth trajectory and in its fight against poverty. The Chief Minister has identified a series of important reforms to hasten the pace of development in the state and the World Bank has committed its full support to these efforts.

“Our projects over the next few years will help the state strengthen the delivery of public services through investments in rural and urban infrastructure – enabling its people to gain access to better jobs and services.”

For improving the power transmission capacity in the state, the World Bank will be providing $150m for the Jharkhand Power System Improvement Project. The objective of the project will be to help the state in increasing the power transmission capacity, optimize procurement and contract management practices in the state-owned Jharkhand Urja Sancharan Nigam Limited (JUSNL) transmission company.

At the same time, the project will also aid the state’s power distribution company, Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited, (JBVNL) in bringing down its Aggregate Transmission and Commercial (AT&C) losses.

Elsewhere in Argentina, the World Bank had given its nod to a $480m guarantee to boost private investment to achieve a target of 20% of energy generation sourced from renewable sources in the country by 2025.