SHIMLA: Mr. John Roome, Regional Director (Sustainable Development), South Asia Region, the World Bank, Washington with team visited the state of Himachal Pradesh w.e.f. 5th to 6th February, 2023.The Regional Director & his team met with the Hon’ble Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh and discussed about future engagements of the World Bank in implementation of various programme in the State focusing Sustainable Forest Management, Community Forestry, Ecosystem Services, Disaster management along the Basins, Water Resource Management, Nature Based Tourism and
Payment on Ecosystem Services. The World Bank agreed upon providing their support in implementation of proposed projects. In order to explore new programme engagements in resilient mountain communities in Himachal Pradesh a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh on dated 6th February, 2023 at 10:00 A.M. in the Conference Hall of Armsdale Building, The World Bank team also reviewed the existing projects funded by the World. Following team embers from the World Bank joined the discussions:
1. Mr. John Roome, Regional Director, South Asia Region, the World Bank
2. Ms. Sumila Gulyani, Practice Manager – Water, the World Bank
3. Ms. Nataliya Kulichenko, Program Leader Sustainable Development, the World Bank
4. Mr. Pyush Dogra, Senior Environmental Specialist, the World Bank
5. Mr. Deepak Singh, Lead Disaster Risk Management Specialist, the World Bank
6. Ms. Ipek Alkan, Lead Operations Officer, the World Bank
7. Mr. Adarsh Kumar, Senior Agribusiness Specialist, the World Bank
8. Ms. Carmen Yee Batista, Team Leader, the World Bank
9. Mr. Mathews Mullackal, the World Bank
10. Mr. Ramanujam, the World Bank
The World Bank team was briefed about that the Government of Himachal Pradesh intends to move from Green Growth to Climate Resilient Green Himachal. The Department of Environment,
Science Technology (DEST) intended to scale up green growth initiatives towards sustained inclusive Green resilient Himachal.
The Regional Director reviewed the following ongoing projects funded by the World Bank during the meeting and the concerned HoDs and administrative secretaries of Govt. of HP presented the
status of ongoing projects before the World Bank team.
In addition to above following new project engagements where State needs Assistance/ Support from World bank were also discussed during the meeting:
1. Support for Green-EV-Mobility programme to achieve carbon neutrality in the state.
2. Support for Decongestion and Urban Mobility in 12 District of State.
3. Regional Project/ Programme to Develop good practices for sustainable catchments and environmental management for Hydro Sustainability.
4. Sustainable Forestry and Natural Capital Management for Himachal under Green India Mission Approach.
5. Support for NRM through safe and sound management of Municipal Solid Waste (Urban/ Peri Urban and Rural) (Developing MSW dumping sites, setting up MRF in the state plastic
etc., common TSDF for hazardous wastes) and reduce pressure on natural resources, mitigate methane (CH4) impacts, ground water contamination etc. including support efficient water management through setting up micro Common Effluent Treatment Plants in industrial areas for safe treatment, disposal and reuse of waste water- water recharge.
6. Leveraging Technology to Improve Governance and Service Delivery
Sh. Lalit Jain Director Department of Environment, Science & Technology who was coordinating with the World Bank Team give a detailed power point presentation before the team on different initiatives of Himachal Pradesh for Green Growth with the support from Bank. Sh. Prabodh Saxena, Chief Secretary, Government of Himachal Pradesh said that the way forward has been deliberated upon with Regional Director Mr. John who was accompanied by different sector Managers from Washington and experts from the World Bank Mission team, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries & HoDs of concerned stakeholder Departments were present. He said that in order to harmonize the developmental plans and strategies with river basin approach as one unit and work on i) Land-use planning, spatial planning, to develop Forest Catchments, Water security, Disaster management and agricultural development plans in a landscape approach and ii) scale up several sectoral strategies and plans to adopt integrated landscape ecosystem approach at Basin level, demonstrate integrated approach from Hill vulnerability perspective with focus areas; Sustainable Forest Management, Community Forestry, Ecosystem Services, Disaster management along the Basins, Water Resource Management, Nature Based Tourism and Payment on Ecosystem Services. And the same has been agreed too.
Hon’ble Chief Minister joined the meeting at Shimla with World Bank Team. He extended warm welcome and greetings to Mr. John Roome, Regional Director and expressed his gratitude to the team. He said that the visit of Regional Director would be a landmark in Himachal Pradesh for transformation towards Green Resilient Himachal. During the discussions Hon’ble Chief Minister highlighted the states priorities in terms of Green Agenda for the State. He informed the Regional Director , The World Bank that he wants to transform state as a Green state. In this direction, State has fixed timebound action plan to achieve installation of 200 MW solar power energy in next nine months and state is set to acquire more land for installation of 500 MW by end of 2024. Hon’ble Chief Minister said that transformation towards adoption of Electric Vehicles in the State is at high priority and would be keen for a big programme from the World Bank for this purpose. He said that maximum departments shall be switched over to EVs by next one year in the first phase. A part from this the Chief Minister also indicated to the team that the State is set to go ahead in line with National Green Hydrogen Energy mission in a big way from production to use. The Regional Director after detailed discussions indicated that the world Bank would be very keen on Green Resilient Integrated Development programme for the State with Basin approach with an estimated cost size of 300 million US $ (Rs. 2500Cr) depending upon the technical analysis, which may be enhanced further. The Regional Director said that of course the EV programme envisioned by Hon’ble Chief Minister shall also be taken up on priority and shortly a team from the Bank shall visit the state for technical analysis. The Regional Director said that he is impressed by the commitment Hon’ble Chief Minister for the people of the State and towards Green transformation agenda. He said such commitment brings a good beginning and indicates a bigger and easier success in future.