PMC to borrow from World Bank for water, flood and sewage projects in 12 newly merged villages

The Pune Municipal Corporation has begun preparing to borrow from the World Bank for the development of the 12 villages recently merged into the city. The loan covers water supply and flood protection projects for these villages, on which about Rs 1,300 crore will be spent. With some more projects added, works worth a total of Rs 2,000 crore will be carried out.

The corporation placed the full outline of the loan before a World Bank delegation that visited Pune. Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram told reporters that the delegation had shown a positive attitude towards it. According to him, the work of fixing a competitive interest rate of 7.3% through the banking process has been completed.

The delegation was led by Regional Practice Director Mara Warwick. It included representatives of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation. William Rex, Nuru Lama, Harsh Goyal and Neeraj Gupta were present at the meeting. From the corporation, Additional Commissioners Pavneet Kaur and Omprakash Diwate, City Engineer Aniruddha Pawaskar, and heads of departments Ulka Kalaskar, Nandkishore Jagtap, Dinkar Gojare and Rajesh Bankar attended.

Additional Commissioner Pavneet Kaur placed the main proposals under the Urban Challenge Fund before the delegation. These include a Rs 890 crore water supply project for the 12 newly merged villages. Ram said the delegation was told that the project is expected to benefit about four lakh people initially and 7.78 lakh people by 2052.

The ADMC also presented the outline of a Rs 400 crore flood mitigation project at 304 identified locations. Sewage proposals for the newly merged villages were also discussed. These include seven sewage treatment plants (STPs) and a sewer line network about 357 km long.

Commissioner Ram said, "Even though the corporation is taking a loan, the Centre and the state government will also help in the development of these villages. The rest of the expenditure has to be borne by the corporation, so it will have to take a loan. The corporation can get a loan at an interest rate of 7.3 per cent, which is very low. We will hold more talks on this and try to bring this interest rate down."