Gujarat Resilient Cities Partnership: Ahmedabad City Resilience Project

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GRCP will support AMC in addressing key institutional, financial, and service delivery constraints to strengthen the resilience and sustainability in Ahmedabad. The project will provide a combination of technical and financial assistance to AMC in pivoting towards an integrated service delivery approach – one that is resilient, green, sustainable, and inclusive. In line with the three pillars of the urban sector partnership framework - the institutions pillar will focus on strengthening the systems, implementing critical reforms, and building the capacity of AMC for planning, delivering, and managing urban services; the finance pillar will focus on strengthening the investment planning and financial management systems, strengthening the revenue base, expanding access to finance; and the service delivery pillar will focus on improving the infrastructure coverage and service levels for wastewater management in Ahmedabad leveraging on the institutions and finance pillars. GRCP will adopt a results-focused financing approach to deliver financial assistance as incentives to AMC for implementing reforms, strengthening systems and enhancing practices. The results-focused approach will establish some of the critical service delivery, institutional and financial systems and performance improvements of the operational as Performance-Based Conditions (PBCs), linking the achievement of these results to full disbursement of IBRD financing. PBCs identified under GRCP are particularly targeted on areas that (i) require significant effort to change established practices, (ii) require strong inter-departmental coordination and collaboration within AMC (which has proven elusive in the past), and (iii) will provide the foundations for long-term sustainability of the infrastructure investments that will be financed using IBRD resources and enable sustained improvements in quality of service. To this end, GRCP comprises three components as described below: Component 1: Strengthening AMC’s institutional and financial systems (Total Financing: USD 15 million; IBRD Financing: USD 15 million)This component will support AMC to address key capacity, systems and policy constraints which affect its institutional and financial performance, hence ability to invest in and maintain urban infrastructure services in a sustainable and resilient manner. Component 1 comprises six subcomponents focused on: (i) improving municipal revenue performance, specifically in property tax, (ii) reforming and strengthening land-based financing instruments, (iii) strengthening institutional systems for wastewater and stormwater management services, (iv) developing an integrated GIS system for urban management, financing, and service delivery across AMC’s departments, (v) strengthening municipal financial management systems, and (vi) developing and institutionalizing a climate-smart capital investment planning system.Component 2: Improving wastewater management services (Total Financing: USD 366.30 million; IBRD Financing: USD 246.30 million, Government Financing: USD 120 million)This component will focus on improving the coverage, quality, efficiency, sustainability, and resilience of wastewater management services, following an integrated approach for service delivery. Wastewater management has been prioritized based on a detailed technical assessment of AMC’s infrastructure and service delivery performance, that highlighted significant infrastructure gaps, suboptimal service levels, regulatory non-compliance, substantial resource sustainability and resilience risks, and negative environmental and social externalities. Component 2 will comprise five activities: (i) expanding and upgrading wastewater treatment systems to address the major capacity gaps, operational inefficiencies and regulatory non-compliances – this includes shifting to more efficient treatment technologies and resilient technical designs; (ii) integrating and improving wastewater network systems including household connections to enhance the wastewater carrying capacities in line with rising wastewater generation, limit infiltration & inflows into the network, augment their structural adequacy and improve operational efficiency of the overall wastewater system; (iii) developing integrated facilities for secondary and tertiary treatment of wastewater for industrial reuse with the objective of promoting wastewater recycling and reuse for circularity and resource efficiency – this would mitigate the freshwater demand in city’s major industrial clusters and contribute to the target of 70% treated wastewater reuse as per state’s wastewater recycling and reuse policy, (iv) establishing systems and processes for industrial pollution monitoring and abatement – that would enable AMC to monitor the pollution risks on a real-time basis and protect the wastewater systems from frequent shocks and operational breakdowns; and (v) upgrading and operationalization of a city-wide unified wastewater monitoring and quality control system for enhanced operational control, process optimisation and robust monitoring of wastewater system including conveyance and treatment processes, to enable city wide efficiency improvement. Interventions in wastewater management systems will be (i) prioritized based on integrated service-catchment based system planning that would focus on coordinated end-to-end systems improvement including wastewater network and treatment systems in priority catchments in the core city area – two catchments (Pirana and Vasna) have been prioritized based on the needs and challenges identified during technical assessments, and (ii) spatially integrated and balanced in terms of rehabilitating, upgrading, and expanding the systems in the core city area; and developing new systems in the peripheral urban areas within the prioritized catchment areas. The long-term city-wide wastewater management master plan currently being prepared by AMC will serve as a sound basis to identify and prioritize the investments under this component – following the approach outlined here. Priority will be accorded to investments that are urgently required to mitigate environmental pollution, ensure regulatory compliance and address capacity gaps. The technical design and implementation process will ensure that most resource-efficient, climate-resilient and green technological solutions and infrastructure systems are adopted – that not only enhance service performance and sustainability but also reduce GHG emissions and develop adaptive capacity to manage climate risks. This would serve as a model of integrated planning, infrastructure development and service delivery, that can be scaled-up across all other service catchments of the city – in line with the long-term wastewater management master plan.This component will introduce performance-based Design, Build, Operate and Transfer (DBOT) contract modalities for private sector participation that include outcome-oriented service delivery and sustainable O&M for 15 years in addition to infrastructure development. Targeted support in this sector will enable improvements in the coverage, service levels and performance; enhance resource efficiency and sustainability through circular approaches such as recycling and reuse; ensure regulatory compliance and mitigate risks related to water pollution and resource degradation; enhance climate resilience and reduce GHG emissions.Component 3: Developing state level institutional systems and capacities (Total Financing: USD 18 million; IBRD Financing: USD 18 million)This component will focus on developing a state level platform to leverage AMC’s good practices for building capacity and systems of other emerging cities in Gujarat. Component 3 will comprise two subcomponents focused on: (i) developing state-level systems and an urban knowledge ecosystem for emerging cities along with a state level project and financial management system for other ULBs, and (ii) technical supp