Announcement of IDA Credit of One Hundred Forty-Seven Million US Dollars Approved for Urban Development Project in Calcutta, India to Benefit Six Million Poor on May 23, 1983

•world Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, 0.C. 20433, U.S.A.• Telephone: (202) 477-1234 IDA NEWS RELEASE NO. 83/85 (Revised) Contact: Hugh Blackman May 23 '· 1983 (202) 477-3573 URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN CALCUTTA, INDIA . TO BENEFIT SIX MILLION .POOR; IDA CREDIT OF $147 MILLION APPROVED Basic urban services will be provided to over six million poor living in Calcutta, India, through a project which will use a er.edit of SDR 136.6 million ($147 million) from the International Development Association (IDA). This is the third Calcutta urban development project supported by the Worlrl Bank's affiliate for concessionary lending. The $303.1 million project will improve urban management in the Calcutta Metropolitan Area through a comprehensive approach in which institutional and financial reforms will go hand-in-hand with physical ioprovements • •• Over one-third of tte investments made under the project will be for water supply, drainage, and sanitation facilities which six million of the 10 million living in Calcutta lack. Other urban services to be provided ... include transportation, shelter development, and slum improvement. Approximately four million beneficiaries belong to households with a monthly income of up to $37. The first Calcutta Urban Development Project, which used an IDA credit of $35 million approved in 1973, was directed mainly to investments in water supply, sewage, drainage, and traffic engineering. The second project, which benefitted from an IDA credit of $87 million approved in 1978, focussed on a series of organizational, administrative, and fiscal reforms in urban planning. The Government of India and the Government of the State of WesL .Bengal will contribute $64 .1 million towards the project. About $92 million is expected to be financed through open market borrowings. The IDA credit is for 50 years, including 10 years of grace; it carries no interest but has a small annual service charge of (0.5% on the undisbursed balances of the credit and 0.75% on the disbursed balances) . • NOTE IDA credits are denominated in SDR's (Specfa1 Drawing Rights), which are valued on the bas.is of a "basket" of currencies. The U.S. dollar equivalent of the SDR amount of the IDA credit reflects the exchange rates existing at the time of the nego~iation of the credit.