INDIA: Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project

INDIA Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (P007985)
First Implementation Support Mission, June 2011
Activity Current Progress Agreed Next Steps & World Bank Recommendations
Livelihood
through
Ecotourism at
Sagar Island by
the Sundarban
Affairs
Department
(SAD)
[4C-C3]
provision of
Cyclone
Shelters in
Sundarban by
the Disaster
Management
Department
2. SAD officials have not retained any institutional memory of project
preparation; and are therefore proposing activities and concepts which
were rejected at preparation period of the project. The revised concepts
and designs have not been prepared.
3. No progress otherwise has been made.
1. The Disaster Management Department has not signed MOU with the
SPMU, but has nominated a senior officer as the nodal officer for the
activities to be undertaken. The Disaster management Department has
yet not opened the required bank account.
2. No specific action has been undertaken to build the nascent capacity of
the Disaster Management Department
3. The proposal accepted at appraisal stage has been revised; the cost of
one unit of cyclone shelter has been revised to RS.36.9 million instead
of approximately Rs. 8 million at the time of appraisal. The new unit
rate of construction is based on the States proposal under two other
programs (PM Relief Fund and proposed National Cyclone Risk
Mitigation Project – where the unit rate proposed by the State is
Rs.38.6 million). The designs and estimates drew upon advice from an
expert from IIT Kharagpur.
4. Based on the above proposed rate escalation, the Disaster Management
Department has proposed to reduce the number of planned cyclone
shelter to 10 from the original target of 32.
5. No other progress has been made.
are in place by September 2011, SPMU will undertake the work itself
(the actual work will anyway be managed and operated by CBOs and
Panchayats, as is currently planned).
2. SPMU will need to support SAD to revise the proposal. SPMU will
collect the plan and survey data already available with PHED (who
oversee the annual fair at Gangasagar); and start planning and
designing activities in conformity to that plan, but with an aim of
environmental improvement of the area. SPMU will prepare an update
and share with World Bank by October 2011. [Subject to Point 1
above.]
3. SPMU and SAD will revise and confirm the Annual Action Plan of
2011-12 and 2012-13 by November 2011. [Subject to Point 1 above.]
1. These actions need to be completed in August 2011.
2. It is important for the State to build capacity for disaster management.
The Department should prepare a proposal for building adequate
capacity, using the current program of cyclone shelters as a base. The
proposal should include how the other states such as Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and the like has built
institutional capacity in the last decade; and what appropriate
institutional models and elements should be replicated for West
Bengal. This proposal should be internally agreed by the State, and
shared with World Bank by March 2012. Based on this proposal
approved by the State, initial institutional and capacity building
activities should be included in the Annual Action Plan for 2012-13.
3. This revision of cost is unacceptable to the World Bank. (A) The basic
principle of constructing cyclone shelter is that creating a common
facility has an economy of scale. Within the proposed unit cost of one
cyclone shelter; around 300 households can be made cyclone proof,
and if the cost of one unit of cyclone shelter is so high it might be
rather appropriate and beneficial to use this money to retrofit a large
number of houses. (B) The idea of very large size cyclone shelters, for
either 2000 or 3000 persons is suspect. Such large size of cyclone
shelters will mean that people at the time of cyclone have to travel
long distances to reach the cyclone shelter. Also, land for construction
of such large cyclone shelters is in short supply in the densely
populated area. All cyclone shelters should usually be located in the
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