THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Resilient Kerala Development Programme-2 as part of the Rebuild Kerala Initiative (RKI) will get a concessional funding of $250 million from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The funding will help the state in capacity building to overcome pandemic including Covid, disease outbreaks, natural disasters and climate change.
The RKDP-2 is a continuation to the initial RKDP-1 supported by the World Bank. The World Bank had earlier disbursed $250 million (`1,779 crore) to RKDP in August 2019. It was later augmented by the KfW (German Development Bank) with another 100 million Euro assistance. The RKDP-2 will support investments towards improving resilience of public and private assets with the “build back better” concept. This aims to improve quality of lives, reduce physical and financial vulnerabilities to natural disasters.
Unlike the RKDP-1 which was supported by a Development Policy Loan (DPL), the RKDP-2 is in the mode of Program for Results (PforR), In this results have to be demonstrated before the disbursement of loan tranches. The project proposal of RKDP-2 submitted by the state government to the Union department of Economic Affairs lists three targets. First to enhance resilience to assets and systems to address the state’s vulnerability to multi-hazard events. Second is to build a green and resilient Kerala to mitigate floods and other disasters. And the third target is to support the state’s efforts in combating the ongoing pandemic.
Government of India, World Bank, AIIB and Government of Kerala are all set to enter into agreements for the assistance. The WB and the AIIB will be sanctioning $125 million each. The Government of India will sign a loan agreement with the respective agencies, which will be followed by signing of corresponding programme agreements by the Government of Kerala.