A high level delegation of World Bank led by Regional Vice President South Asia Hartwig Schafer had meeting with Chief Secretary Ram Subhag Singh and other senior officers of the State here today. Chief Secretary Ram Subhag Singh said that during the meeting, discussions were focused on the agenda of climate resilient green growth. The State emphasized that in view of the new clean development agenda as laid down by Prime Minster Narendra Modi recently in the Glasgow Summit, the State has a special role to play and help the country in energy transition from fossil fuel sources to non polluting renewable sources. Hydro sector due to its very design is essentially required for grid stability which has become a new area of concern due to increasing injection of intermittent and variable solar and wind power into the grid.
The state requested World Bank for investment and knowledge support in pump storage, solar and hydro sectors of the State. Climate resilient agriculture, livelihood security through integrated watershed development approach, State Environment Action plan and clean mobility were other areas of focus. The State requested investment, technical and knowledge support in all these sectors. In view of increasing foot print of transport sector in overall pollution matrix investment support for Traffic De-congestion in two Smart Cities i.e. Shimla and Dharamshala by way of Ropeways etc. was also sought. ACS Finance Prabodh Saxena, Principal Secretary Transport R.D. Nazeem, Principal Secretary to CM and PWD Subhasish Panda, Secretary Agriculture Rakesh Kanwar and Advisor Planning Basu Sood detailed on various aspects. Earlier, Principal Secretary Urban Development Devesh Kumar welcomed the Regional Vice President and other members of the delegation and conducted the proceedings of the meeting.
Earlier, the delegation visited the State on 15th and 16th March, 2022. The objective of the visit was to review the progress of ongoing programs and to explore possibility of future engagements. World Bank is having substantial portfolio of investment in the State. As of today projects aggregating to Rs. 3,160 crore are coming up in the State. These Projects are in road, water supply, horticulture, forest and financial management sectors. On 15 March, 2022 Regional Vice President, World Bank visited the office of Shimla Jal Prabandhan Nigam Ltd. (SJPNL) and reviewed the working of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), set up for implementing the Shimla Water Supply Project being funded by the World Bank. He also visited Ramgarh, a suburb of Shimla and interacted with the beneficiaries of the Project.
