The Centre, on Tuesday, signed an agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for $75 million loan that will help improve water resource management in three towns of Karnataka in the Upper Tungabhadra sub-basin.
The 25-year term loan has a grace period of five years. The bank also provided $1.8 million grant along with the loan.
The first tranche under Karnataka Integrated Urban Water Management Investment Programme will help expand and upgrade urban water supply and sanitation infrastructure, improve water resource planning, monitoring and service delivery; strengthen operational and administrative capacity in Byadagi, Davanagere and Harihar.
Ministry of Finance Department of Economic Affairs Joint Secretary Tarun Bajaj said the project will help increase water treatment capacity by 15,000 cubic meters per day, expand and upgrade more than 1,000 km of water pipelines and increase sewage treatment capacity by 48,000 cubic meters per day, thereby promoting water efficiency and environmental protection.
ADB India Resident Mission Officer-in-Charge Rajeev Singh, said the project will help establishment of urban local bodies incentive fund to assist towns in implementing reforms and mainstreaming use of performance-based contracts in ensuring continuous water services.
The project will also test the application of output based approaches to support programme for poor and vulnerable households, he added.
The investment aims at improving water resource management in urban areas in a holistic and sustainable manner.
Investment support will be provided to modernise and expand urban water supply and sanitation (UWSS) while strengthening relevant institutions to enhance efficiency, productivity and sustainability in water use.
DH News Service
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