Japan - an important funding for India

            Japan, an important funding source for India’s growth story, has urged New Delhi to unravel the red tape holding up big-ticket infrastructure projects that it is ready to fund. Akihiko Tanaka, president of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said that he has urged finance minister                        P Chidambaram to speed up project approvals, as their execution cannot start without paperwork. .

Japan has extended Yen 2,065 billion or $21 billion (at today's exchange rate) in aid to India over the last 10 years since 2002, helping put on track a host of infrastructure projects such as Delhi’s showcase metro rail. Among the projects now being funded by the country are:

·        Western freight and Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridors

·        Line-3 in Mumbai Metro's first phase

·        Development of highways in Bihar

·        A $137-million investment promotion in Tamil Nadu

·        Development of IIT-Hyderabad campus through $186 million loan

Tanaka said that, Japan cannot start a project without signing the loan agreement and hence asked the finance minister to make necessary arrangements so that the loan agreements for the four major projects can go on in a timely manner. Tanaka’s comment assumes significance in the backdrop of the recent meeting between Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, at which Japan committed $747 million for the Mumbai Metro line and extended a yen loan equivalent of $3.7 billion for eight other projects.

 Japan has often voiced concern over the tardy pace of pace of approvals. JICA’s chief representative in India Shinya Ejima, had earlier said that going forward, the agency would only sign loan deals if approvals, such as environment clearances and most of the land acquisition, are in place.

Tanaka said he expected better progress on the $90-billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, which was reviewed by the two PMs. The national highway improvement plan for Bihar involves widening of the NH 82 along the Buddhist circuit. JICA has been ready to fund these projects since 2010, but they are yet to get Cabinet clearance. The bulk of JICA’s aid to India so far has been for the infrastructure sector—about 49% of its assistance since 2002 has gone into transportation projects and 20% to power sector.

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Japan funded Hogenakkal water supply and fluorosis Mitigation Project

Hogenakkal Water Supply and Fluoride Mitigation Project

            A drinking water supply project, conceived nearly 50 years ago for water-starved and fluoride-hit people of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts in north-western belt, became a reality when Chief Minister Jayalalithaa formally commissions through video-conferencing (May 29, 2013). The project, now called “Hogenakkal Water Supply and Fluorosis Mitigation Project”, was originally mooted when K. Kamaraj was Chief Minister in the 1960s. Over the years, it witnessed various changes and eventually, when the DMK was in power, the project took off.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) decided to fund the 80 per cent of the project cost, which is around Rs. 1,928 crore. A senior official of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board, the executing agency, says that in terms of cost, this is the biggest taken up by the Board. But, the significance of the project is not just about the cost. It is going to serve people in a region, which is among less developed in many respects. As per an estimate of the funding agency, the districts of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri had, as of 2006, about 1.1 million people living below poverty line. According to 12th Five Year Plan document of the State Planning Commission, human development indices of the Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts are 0.748 and 0.707 against the State’s overall figure of 0.765.

Known for chronic water shortage, the two districts receive less rainfall compared to many other parts of the State. Their average annual rainfall is 815 mm whereas the State’s annual rainfall is 977 mm. But, what affects them more is the presence of fluoride, harmful to the human body, in the groundwater. People suffer from dental and skeletal fluorosis. A document of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department [under whose administrative control comes the TWAD Board] states that among 3.8 lakh school students assessed for dental fluorosis, the intensity of the problem was severe in respect of three per cent of the students while it was moderate in the case of 10 per cent.

Taking into account all these aspects, the authorities have designed the project, which will benefit about 3.3 million spread over three municipalities, 17 town panchayats and 6,755 rural habitations in the two districts. Using Cauvery as the source, the project can take care of the requirements of four million. On completion of the project, all rural habitations will have the prescribed norm of 40 litres per capita per day (LPCD) and the urban local bodies, 135 LPCD, adds the official.

Timeline of the Hogenakkal project:- The Hogenakkal water supply project presents a classic case of cost overrun.

Year	Details	Cost of the Project
1960s	Kamaraj was CM	Rs. 110 cr
1986	MGR – benefit 3 other dts too (Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai and Vellore) but now the project covers only Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri dts. MGR named the project as “Kamaraj Plan Project”
1994	Jayalalithaa - CM	Rs. 450 cr
1996	Karunanidhi – CM (1998 Pokhran nuclear blasts – economic sanctions imposed on India)	Rs. 600 cr
2005	Jayalalithaa - CM	Rs. 1005 cr
2010	Karunanidhi - CM	Rs. 1928.8 cr
2013	Jayalalithaa - CM	Official commission of the project