Progress of 55 projects reviewed

The Asian Development Bank is willing to enhance its annual sovereign lending to Indian projects from the present US$2 billion to US$3 billion, said Diwesh Sharan, Deputy Director General (DDG) for ADB’s South Asia Department, co-chaired the Tripartite Portfolio Review Meeting.

This follows ADB’s recently approved 5-year Country Partnership Strategy for India, he said.

He said the ADB is building on the increasingly robust implementation performance in the recent years, and by extending support to low income states and economic corridors.

Saran made the comments at a review of 55 projects worth US$13.5 billion in Bengaluru on 3 November 2017.

The review was jointly done by the Indian government, 25 states and the ADB.

Saran co-chaired the Tripartite Portfolio Review Meeting with Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions), Department of Economic Affairs (DEA).

Over 150 officials of the Central and State Governments including Project Directors, and ADB staff participated in the said meeting.

The meeting discussed the status of ongoing projects and prioritized actions to achieve their implementation targets.

Khare said that the projects assisted by multilateral development banks such as ADB should demonstrate faster and better results while facilitating international best practices, new technologies and reforms.

As of October 2017, work on projects worth US$9.6 billion is ongoing and US$5.4 billion has been disbursed.

ADB primarily focuses its assistance in India on three Infrastructure Sectors—Energy; Transport; and Urban Infrastructure and Services.

The Meeting also accorded the best project implementation performance awards to the following projects:

· Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission and Distribution System Improvement Project

· Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Program (Tranche-1)

· Uttarakhand Emergency Assistance Project. fii-news.com