The city is among the 30 urban local bodies in the country and only the second in the State selected for a rapid baseline study and preparation of the revised City Development Plan (CDP) under Capacity Building for Urban Development.
Key areas
The study is to be taken up under the Ministry of Urban Development and funded by the World Bank as part of a series of studies. Guntur is the other city taken up for the baseline study in Andhra Pradesh.
The exercise covers the study of urban local bodies in the core areas of finance, planning, engineering and governance, according to Ramesh T, Senior Consultant (Urban Planning) of CRISIL carrying out the study.
Based on one-on-one discussions with officials and documents covering institutional set-up, inter-departmental and relations with UDA, key drivers for city, transfer of powers under 74 Constitution Amendment, among others, it will suggest measures for quicker delivery of services and capacity building.
“It’s a diagnostic study for corrections at the grassroot level in capacity building in urban development,” Mr. Ramesh told The Hindu recently.
Report for Centre
On the basis of the information, an analysis will be carried out identifying the strengths and weaknesses and a report submitted to the Ministry of Urban Development.
In a parallel exercise, a revised City Development Plan will also be prepared. While a team from CEPT University is also preparing a revised CDP, the CRISIL team will prepare it as none of the other cities covered under its study have it.
A call on how to make use of the two plans will be taken later. However, the CEPT team has already prepared a draft report.
Team to be deployed
Once the exercises are completed, five experts will be deployed to support capacity-related aspects in urban planning, finance, e-governance, municipal engineering and community mobilisation.
Five teams are carrying out the exercise (of baseline assessment) in the South and East of the country. All over the country 21 major States are covered in the study.
