Country Director, Kenichi Yokoyama and his team from  Asian Development Bank (ADB) visited Nagaland and held a meeting with the State government led by Chief Secretary of Nagaland, Temjen Toy, on 15th April.

The purpose of their visit was for assisting and guiding in preparation of project proposals for external assistance for the state of Nagaland. This visit was part of the ADB’s programme for India’s North East paradise unexplored supporting infrastructure planning and implementation for North Eastern Region Project Readiness Financing (PRF) and Technical Assistance (TA).

Senior Project Officer (Urban) Ashok Srivastava in his power point presentation stated that the infrastructure development in North East Region (NER) is critical to promote rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth. Regional integration as a gateway to connect ASEAN & South Asian countries as per India’s Act East policy. He also said poor infrastructure and limited connectivity have acted as roadblocks hindering the socio-economic development of northeast region.

On Project Readiness Financing (PRF) for North Eastern Region, the bank will assist the states to prepare quality DPRs and build readiness of the infrastructure projects mainly on infrastructure sectors such as roads, urban and power. One PRF may support multiple sectors within one state or multiple states covering single/multiple sectors. All north eastern states can access to this except Arunachal Pradesh, he stated. 

Key activities under PRF are

(1) Preparation of DPRs, feasibility studies for prioritized projects, detailed economic and financial analysis including financial and operational sustainability preparation of social & environmental safeguard plans, advisory support for advancing land acquisition and resettlement, environment-related clearance and shifting of utilities. Incorporation of innovate mechanisms and elements in the projects, advance procurement action, including preparation of bid documents, tendering and bid evaluations.

(2); Assist project authorities to set up institutional processes, guidelines and decision making system for project management and implementation pilot testing of a project design to test its validity and to make necessary design adjustments ahead of implementation under any ensuing project, development of specific PPP project under transaction advisory services, support for project start up activities where EAs have capacity constraints. 

After PRF (1) & (2), there will be selection criteria, discussion issues pertaining to PRF followed by TA Grant, he mentioned.

During the meeting, the AHoDs & HoDs expressed their concerns about the pace of development and mentioned the need and importance of external assistance for rapid development of the state. Also, they suggested the plans and ideas of their respective departments for consideration of ADB for favour of assistance.

Principal Secretary Urban Development, Abhishek Singh, also gave power point presentation for Urban Development department

Line departments like Urban, Medical, IT & C, PWD (NH), Power, Planning, and Transport among others attended the meeting