Bhutan Livable and Resilient Cities Project

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The project will aim to enhance livability and climate resilience in the project area through improved infrastructure and service delivery. It will comprise two components: (i) resilient and low-carbon service delivery and (ii) urban management, planning, and capacity building. Component 1: Resilient and low-carbon service delivery ($44.7 million)Component 1.1: Resilient water services ($5.71 million GCF allocation) First, the project will enhance the resilience and reliability of Thimphu’s water supply in the core city. The subcomponent will finance installation of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for better monitoring and management, balancing treatment works capacity and demand as well as allowing detailed systems analysis and demand forecasting against climate events. It will fortify raw water intake systems to function effectively under extreme climatic conditions. It will reduce the risk of erosion from high rainfall-induced landslides in raw and clear water transmission lines. The project will rationalize service areas under Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) and treated water transmission lines to function at capacity and ensure effective use of all storage reservoirs, ensuring the equitable distribution of water for continuous water supply (24/7) delivery across District Metered Areas (DMA) in the core city, even during prologued droughts. It will strengthen the distribution network to maintain an uninterrupted water supply even during droughts and flooding events by significantly reducing water losses and investing in active leakage control. These investments will ensure that the core city’s urban water supply systems are better able to withstand climate impacts while ensuring services are at higher levels. Component 1.2: Resilient urban public spaces and low-emission mobility ($5.41 million GCF allocation)Second, the project will enhance Thimphu’s public spaces through targeted urban placemaking and pedestrian infrastructure improvements, creating channels of movement in areas with small businesses. It will improve the amenity of Norzin Lam, the city’s main 1.3-kilometer commercial thoroughfare, and connecting passageways with improved street furniture, removal of through traffic, and provide improved access for persons with disabilities. The project will remove high kerbs and obstructions on footpaths. It will improve sidewalks and paths along the bus priority corridor. It will provide continuous cable ducts under sidewalks for connecting the display boards at bus stops. The project will support improvements to the city center’s traffic and streetscape, guided by complete street design principles and developed through a participatory process to enhance safety, accessibility, and functionality for all users. The project will also ameliorate roadside drainage and connect the stormwater drains to Sustainable urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) to slow run-off as well as reduce the risk of pluvial flooding. Component 1.3: Low-emission public transport ($33.58 million total, of which $20 million are IDA, $8.88 million are GCF, and $4.7 million are counterpart funding)Third, the project will advance the development of a lower-emission bus service that is reliable, frequent, safe, clean, affordable, accessible, and enhances labor mobility. The project will introduce an 18.7-kilometer bus priority lane with bus bays and 75 bus shelters. The bus priority lane will begin in Babesa and proceed through the core city area along Deubom Lam until the northern terminal at Dechencholing, complementing the pedestrianization of Norzin Lam (see Figure 2) . The bus lane will widen two bridges and construct pier and abutment protection in the rivers, preventing bridge scour and providing greater resilience to extreme climate events. It will purchase an initial tranche of 50 electric buses to provide additional capacity for higher-frequency trunk services. The project will also build two new terminals at the northern and southern ends of the bus corridor for charging and maintaining e-buses, improving the central bus depot with electric bus charging and maintenance facilities and providing modern facilities for employees. The terminals will include basic climate-proofing measures, such as rainwater harvesting systems for vehicle washing, and will incorporate energy-efficient designs, including roof insulation and ventilation systems, to reduce heat buildup. It will procure an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and Management Information System (MIS) for live information on bus services. These will provide online bus schedules and journey planning, with information on waiting times at bus stops and improved facilities in the existing CBS control room to allow real-time monitoring of the bus services for service reliability. Finally, the project will install 23 signalized pedestrian crossings for the safety and convenience of pedestrians and bus passengers. The infrastructure will be sized to account for future climate change impacts. These investments will incentivize public transport use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 193,000 tCO2eq over 20 years. Component 2: Urban management, planning, and capacity building for improved climate resilience ($8 million GCF allocation) Component 2.1: Capacity building and institutional strengthening for resilient water and urban service delivery ($3.09 million GCF allocation) The project will provide institutional strengthening and create an enabling environment for resilient water management. This subcomponent will establish a ring-fenced water and wastewater services division within Thimphu Thromde which provides a sustainable basis for water supply and treatment that meets international standards and is affordable for customers. It will design the SCADA system to monitor the pressures and flows in the water supply network and use data from the system to calibrate hydraulic models as well as optimize maintenance strategies and capital investment planning. The project will establish processes for disaster and emergency responses to burst pipes, blockages, floods, and GLOFs based on better meteorological observation forecasting. Further, the subcomponent will strengthen the day-to-day management of the water network by integrating private sector expertise through a performance-based contract or engaging external experts. This includes providing technical and financial management assistance to bring water services management to international standards (providing annual business plans and financial accounts which allow climate-resilient planning and budgeting for the implementation of the TWSM). In order to advance greater financial sustainability, the subcomponent will support the strengthening of billing systems and provide advice on tariffs that allow full cost recovery for water supply and wastewater treatment. The subcomponent will also lay the groundwork for further investments and national scaling: it will provide institutional strengthening and policy support to the MoIT for the prioritization, structuring, and the development of technical specifications for further water projects, policies and regulations to implement the CCAP, the NAP, and the TWSM. It will provide advice on options to increase private sector involvement in water service delivery in smaller Thromdes and climate-resilient, consistent, and financially sustainable, standards of water service nationally. It will provide a communications strategy to inform the public on the benefits of water conservation. Finally, the subcomponent will support a diagnostic of Bhutan’s urban property valuation system, focusing on public sector capacity and regulatory incentives. It will assess current resourcing, capacity, methods and technologies used for mass valuation of land by the MoF’s Property Assessment and Valuation Division (PAVA) and the Bhutan Schedule of Rates by the Department of Human Settlements (DHS), which are applied for v