Ahmedabad to receive World Bank assistance.

In order to ensure a planned development of the city, the World Bank (WB) has selected Ahmedabad as a pilot city to evolve a long term design for expansion with the help of key stakeholders.

The World Bank team that arrived in the city on Thursday has agreed to assist the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in preparing City Development Strategies as part of the city initiative alliance. This is for the first time that WB has decided to assist India’s two cities — Ahmedabad and Bangalore—in planning overall development programmes.

Briefing newspersons on Friday, the team comprising special executive and consultant Kim Cuenco and senior urban planner Alian Bertaud observed that the purpose of the city development strategies was to identify key issues facing the city and to evaluate strategies to achieve its vision.

"We chose Ahmedabad because it is known for a lot of reforms it has undertaken in the last many years," said Kim Cuenco.

She said that the team initiated consultations with the officials of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and AUDA, elected representatives, business community and planning professionals to assist them on a city corporate plan and an accompanying capital investment programme to implement development strategies.

"The city requires planning for economic development, housing policies, urban structure, poverty eradication and various other programmes initiated by the AMC and therefore the cornerstone of strategies should be broad-based and meaningful public consultation," she suggested.

The first phase of the consultations with the key stake-holders will continue for the next few weeks and will then culminate in the formulation of the City Vision Statement which will be endorsed by municipal corporation.

Compiled from Local News Media