Let It Flow

2008-03-29T00:00:00+05:30 Let It Flow -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

The city-by-the-Hooghly's showcase PPP project is said to have set "fresh benchmarks" in urban improvement. With liberal funding from the ADB, the state and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the Kolkata Environment Improvement Project's (KEIP) mandate was to partner with NGOs to upgrade the city's 140-year-old drainage infrastructure, build an efficient solid waste management system, restore drainage canals, improve slums and reduce pollution. In one area, the slums, the five-year-old project has been a godsend—new roads, reconstructed drains, improved water supply, even spinoff benefits like better mother and child health and lower school dropout rates. Some 3,500 families on the canal banks have been re-settled in flats in keeping with ADB conditions. keip works on the stakeholder principle—projects are initiated with a stakeholder consultation process (SCP); staff and peoples' representatives form committees to monitor the progress. Ashok Bhattacharjee, WB municipal affairs minister, says "it's led to a sense of ownership of the created assets among slum-dwellers".