Director, Urban Development Purnima Chauhan said that the Department is in the process of arranging investment financing for funding under Programme Policy Loan. She said that a Consultation Mission is on a two day visit to the State to discuss the conceptual framework for the Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Policy Loan. She said that the Mission agreed on the detailed scope and consultant’s terms of reference (TOR) for the Project Preparatory Technical Assistance (PPTA). She said that the Mission met Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, Mahender Singh Urban Development Minister and Rajwant Sandhu, Chief Secretary and held discussions with the representatives of Department of Urban Development and other stakeholder departments/agencies. She said that ADB was actively considering for providing loan worth $ 100 million support proposed to be disbursed in three years (Programme loan period) alongwith $200000 for PPTA. She said that the PPTA will enable Urban Development to finalise the scope of the proposed loan in 2012.
Chauhan said that this policy loan seeks to strengthen the capacity of all Urban Local Bodies to undertake improved service delivery in critical civic sectors to all sections of urban citizens in Himachal Pradesh. She said that ADB assistance would provide much needed thrust to incentives Urban Local Bodies on better urban service delivery, work environment improvement, capacity building and strengthening of Urban Local Bodies. She said that project preparatory activities were likely to be started shortly under a team of project specialist consultants.
