Feature Article

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), in collaboration with the Ministry of Urban Development, has embarked on a Benchmarking and Water Utilities Data Book Project for 20 selected water utilities in India. These 20 utilities include 15 municipal corporations, two city boards, a municipal council, a local autonomous body and a private operator.

Programmes under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission hold the potential for transforming the urban water supply and sanitation sector. The mission is in its third year of implementation. Four urban service providers discuss the progress and their future plans in addition to the key to smooth implementation of the programme.

With more than a thousand square kilometres of rooftops there's plenty of room for photovoltaics in Germany. A new study says, however, that newly installed capacity will level off at about one gigawatt per year.

In an interview with Indian Infrastructure, M. Ramachandran, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, talked about developments in the water supply and solid waste management sectors. Among other things, he provided an insight into the issues affecting the sector, achievements made so far and private sector participation in the sector.

The demands on wind turbines to support the power grid are growing in Germany and Spain. Some sector lobbyists see no sense in various stipulations by the grid operators.

In the fourth quarter of 2007 the clean energy sector saw a sharp increase in the use of private equity expansion capital, but investment in buyouts evaporated in the face of the credit crisis. Venture capital investment, meanwhile, maintained the high levels seen in the previous two quarters.

Several cities are now implementing bus rapid transit system (BRTS) as a measure to reduce traffic congestion and cater to increasing populations. Jaipur is making a pioneering effort in this regard by developing a bus system to cover 138 km of road length with an investment of Rs 7.83 billion on an innovative public-private partnership model.

As Austria revises its Green Electricity Act the clean power industries reject the draft on the table as inadequate. To reach its climate protection targets the country will have to massively buy in CO2 certificates.

Although the draft text on fisheries subsidies released in November is on the whole a remarkable synthesis, certain points would benefit from further clarification, in particular to avoid unnecessary litigation in the future. Feb 2008

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has the potential to change the face of urban water supply and sanitation (UWSS) services. It proposes an ambitious set of significant reforms over a seven-year period at the local and state levels. This could alter the quality of sector service providers and of local government in general.