Regional Economic and Infrastructure Investment Strategy

Basic Information

Grant ID: K-49

Region: South Asia

Country: India

Approval Year: 2014

Grant Year: Year 2

Amount Approved by Donor: $400000.00

Main Product Line: ASA

Sector: Urban

Grant start/completion: July 29, 2014 – December 31, 2017

Grant Status: Closed

TTLs: Peter D. Ellis

Grant Activities

Project Summary:

Continuing support for building the Amritsar-Kolkata freight corridor (previously known as the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor), KGGTF’s USD $400,000 regional economic and infrastructure investment strategy program integrates economic development, urban planning, and transportation. The program aims to improve efficiency, promote resilience to extreme weather, reduce urban congestion, and increase regional competitiveness. Following up on demographic and economic studies and development options produced in KGGTF’s. Year 1 program, the Year 2 program assesses selected sub-regions of poverty-stricken Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state.

List of Activities:

  • Examining economic structure and patterns of industrial clustering, infrastructure, and logistic hubs in selected sub-regions
  • Helping government partners to develop an implementation strategy to bolster accessibility and productivity in selected economic clusters
  • Supporting an integrated approach for economic development, urban planning, and transportation that incorporates green growth

Outcomes:

Output 1:

  • Documentation of Phase III work on the KLUA sub-region materials officially by GoI-DIPP and GoUP
  • Agreement on KLUA timelines

Output 2:

  • Plan for the KLUA sub-region is found acceptable and implementable to the GoI DIPP and GoUP

Outcomes:

The expected outcomes of this project would provide: (i) a detailed regional economic assessment of specific sub-regions, identifying economic linkages, impediments, and growth potential of economic clusters; and (ii) infrastructure and investment strategy covering facilities design at a suitable scale and financing options. These outputs would be crucial to engage the government partners in developing an implementation strategy.

Collaboration with K-Partners and Others:

The program, funding by the Australia Agency for International Development (AusAid), also supports related World Bank initiatives under the umbrella of the SAR Urbanization Flagship.