ADB Commits $10 Bn Plan For India’S Urban Transformation

New Delhi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has committed up to $10 billion for India’s urban transformation, including metro extension in the next five years, ADB President Masato Kanda has said. “Cities are engines of growth...ADB will mobilize capital, accelerate delivery, and scale solutions that keep India’s urban economy moving and people thriving on the road to Viksit Bharat by 2047,” Kanda said after meeting Prime

Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday.

The transformation plan includes sovereign loans, private sector financing, and third-party capital, ADB said in a statement. The initiative is anchored by India’s flagship Urban Challenge Fund (UCF), which ADB is supporting to attract private investment for urban infrastructure, it said. Analytical work on growth hubs, creative city redevelopment, and water and sanitation upgrades in 100 cities across India are laying the groundwork for the UCF. ADB is also committing $3 million in technical assistance to design bankable projects and strengthen the capacity of states and urban local bodies, it said. As per estimates, India’s towns and cities are projected to house more than 40 per cent of the population by 2030. ADB has already worked with more than 110 cities across 22 states on water supply, sanitation, housing, and solid-waste management projects, and the active urban portfolio totals 27 loans worth $5.15 billion, it said.