Mauritius - Infrastructure Project

closed

The objective of the Infrastructure Project for Mauritius is to assist the Borrower to improve the national infrastructure, with an emphasis on the transport, energy and water sectors. There are two components to the project. The first component of the project is road investments: priority is given to roads whose capacity have been or will soon be exceeded, which constitute main links to key economic areas of the island or which connect or pass through major villages and which constitute safety hazards. There are three sub-components to this component. The first sub-component is upgrading of Belle Rive - Quartier militaire road will be financed by the Borrower; Government funding will be used to acquire the land needed for the widening of the road right-of-way. The second sub-component is periodic maintenance for three highway sections, which have not been treated since their construction in the late 1970s and the pavement of which presents clear signs of fatigue: (i) Terre Rouge - Quay D on M2, (ii) Nouvelle France - La Vigie on M1, and (iii) parts of Pamplemousses-Grand Baie on A13. The third sub-component is performance-based routine maintenance contracts: the objective of this sub-component is to determine whether performance-based contracts, once adapted to the local context, are the right means to overcome a backlog of deferred maintenance on key sections of Mauritius primary network. The second component of the project is technical assistance (TA) and institutional development in the transport - water/wastewater - energy sub-sectors: the TA components aim at laying the groundwork for possible future Sector Investment Loan (SIL) in the three sectors in approximately two years after this project becomes effective, within the framework of a public sector investment plan to be developed through the proposed loan.