Guwahati: The Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Program (AUIIP), funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and one of the key urban infrastructure initiatives of the state government to improve urban environment and quality of life in Guwahati and Dibrugarh cities, has been tagged as the "most challenging" project in the entire South Asia urban portfolio.
The ADB labelled the tag at a recent stakeholders' meeting in New Delhi which was attended by representatives from the ministries of finance and economic affairs, among others, followed by a letter to T. Y. Das, the chief secretary of Assam on the project.
Sources said the minutes of the meeting say the project is "most challenging" in Southeast Asia, a tag which, they said, Dispur can ignore only at its own peril.
Under AUIIP, setting up of the South East Guwahati water supply project and storm water drainage management and solid waste management project in Dibrugarh are under way in the state.
"The multi-tranche financing facility (MFF) for the AUIIP was approved on September 30, 2011 and its first tranche ($51 million at present) on November 18, 2011, both with the original closing date of June 30, 2018, but only $16.2 million has been disbursed as of December 31, 2017. While the MFF was extended up to June 29 of 2021 and second tranche ($149 million ) was negotiated in early October of 2017, the latter is yet to be signed," a letter sent to Assam chief secretary T.Y. Das by ADB country director Kenichi Yokoyama said.
In the letter, Yokoyama said: "The maximum MFF utilisation period is 10 years beyond which no extension is permitted. Thus, the AUIIP has only 3.5 years of implementation period left, with $183.8 million unutilised. Under the circum- stance, this letter seeks your support and guidance on improving performance of the AUIIP."
In the letter, the ADB also proposed to provide functional autonomy to the Assam Urban Infrastructure Development and Management Agency (AUIDMA) for AUIIP implementation to enhance the project.
"The AUIDMA should be authorised to sanction, approve, implement and monitor MFF activities by framing rules of business, constituting the designed committees and assigning powers," the letter said.
