VISHAKHAPATNAM: The G20 Infrastructure Working Group’s two-day workshop opened on Wednesday in Visakhapatnam, wherein 70 experts from various cities in India and abroad started discussing how cities can leverage private finance for their growth.
Inaugurating the workshop, Economic Affairs Department joint secretary Solomon Arokiaraj set the context while India country manager Wendy Jo Werner and EU delegation’s senior program manager Delphine Brissonneau expressed their thoughts on how cities turn economic centres of growth.
On improving civic infrastructure, SBM-U Mission director Binay Kumar Jha, AMRUT Mission director Lavanya Kumar and Smart Cities Mission director Lal Chhandama explained the scale and performance of each mission that the ministry for housing and urban affairs has launched. Binay Jha showcased IT-enabled services through Swachhata App, women’s participation, especially in Chhattisgarh state, and rating systems for cities. Lavanya Kumar apprised how PPP has helped augment water supply and sewerage projects in million plus cities. Lal Chhandama presented 10 successful case studies comprising transport hubs, C&D waste, rooftop solar panels, mobility card and public-bicycle sharing in smart cities.
IFC’s George Butler discussed strategies, supported by international case studies, to reduce non-revenue water. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation executive engineer Srinivas Reddy discussed the waste to energy project. IFC Upstream Infrastructure senior operations officer Mohit Ganeriwala spoke on Belgrade’s waste to energy revenue model and IFC PPP team investment officer Sumeet Shukla discussed affordable housing in Odisha in public-private partnership mode.
The workshop turned a platform to cross learn successful case studies from various states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with examples ranging from drinking water supply, solid waste management, affordable housing, waste to energy plants and others.
