The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Kingdom would provide $14 million in technical assistance to help improve the quality and delivery time of projects in a few states.
ADB board of directors approved the grant from the Government of the United Kingdom to increase the capacity of lower income states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan to prepare and implement ADB-supported projects. ADB will administer the grant, with the Government of India providing counterpart support of $3.5 million.
?The technical assistance will help reduce project start-up time; build critical project implementation capacity in lower-income states; strengthen direct and indirect contributions to poverty reduction and more inclusive growth, and enhance government ownership of projects,? said Prodyut Dutt, senior transport specialist, in ADB?s South Asia department.
The assistance will be used to fund project feasibility studies; to conduct due diligence on social and environmental safeguard measures; to support the preparation of bid documents and to assist in the calling for, and evaluation of bids.