- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE World Bank on Friday (1) said its board of executive directors has approved $150 million (£110 million) to support the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu’s vision of making its capital city Chennai a world-class one which is more green, liveable and resilient to climate change.
The World Bank has also given nod to a project worth $40 million (£29 million) which will improve the quality of health services in the north-eastern state of Meghalaya and improve the city’s capacity to handle health emergencies, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking about the World Bank’s funding for the ‘Chennai City Partnership: Sustainable Urban Services Program’, it will improve the financial health of service agencies and drive significant improvements in the quality of four important urban services – water supply and sewerage, mobility, health and solid waste management, it said in a statement.
The Chennai Metropolitan Area, which is home to about 10.9 million people, is India’s fourth most populous metropolitan area.
Despite being an economic powerhouse, the city has not kept pace with growing demand for key services, the World Bank’s statement said, adding the coastal city also remains highly vulnerable to natural disasters, climate change and, as the COVID-19 emergency revealed, to pandemics.
With regard to the Meghalaya loan, the World Bank in a separate statement said all 11 districts of the state will benefit from the project. It will also benefit health sector staff at the primary and secondary levels by strengthening their planning and management capabilities and building their clinical skills. The project will also enable women to better utilise healthcare services at the community level, it added.
