The Centre has applied for a loan of US $1,86,20,000 from Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop quality urban infrastructure and improve the living condition of the poor in Bihar.

The money would be utilised under the Bihar Urban Development Investment Programme that would cover four cities — Gaya, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur. Once the programme is implemented, the cities would witness growth in the field of urban infrastructure by the end of the year. The money would be used in areas like water supply and sewerage systems.

“To strengthen the poor condition of urban local bodies, both in terms of delivery of municipal services and capacity building through technical assistance, the urban development department is in talks with the Asian Development Bank to provide the requisite assistance. A request for loan up to the amount of US $1,86,20,000 has been made to the international financial institution and the department has started the process of setting up the groundwork to ensure timely execution of the proposed programme,” said a senior urban development department official.

The objective of the programme is to improve the quality of infrastructure and municipal service delivery in a sustainable manner to augment economic growth of main urban areas of Bihar. This would also lay emphasis on promoting commerce.

The proposed project will improve living conditions and also the environment by financing urban infrastructure development in the sectors of water supply and sewerage in the selected four districts during the project period of nine years (December 2012 to November 2021). The state urban development department would be the executing agency for the proposed development investment programme.

At present, none of the four cities has any facility for sewage treatment and management, which leads to millions of litres of untreated sewage water going to rivers causing severe contamination. The water supply mechanism is also defunct in almost all the four cities.

Sources said, the previous ADB urban sector projects in India started after significant delay because of insufficient groundwork for the establishment of the project management structure and subsequent slow down in the field work.

Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation, an undertaking of the urban development department, is in the process of selecting the programme management consultants.