The project design included measures to improve billing and collection. Considering the excessive aggregate technical and commercial losses, a project design could include measures for reducing commercial loss that were being promoted by the government and being implemented in other areas e.g., high voltage distribution system in urban areas, use of aerial bundle conductors, and segregation of agricultural and domestic power supply in rural areas.
Extensive consultations with government and stakeholders, including ger visits, surveys, and meetings, help in developing better project design. Involving the stakeholders at design stage up to implementation, and establishment of community groups in this project contributed substantially to its success. Specifically, the buy-in of stakeholders is critically important when the project involves introduction of new technology, innovative approaches, and pilot programs.
Investments with innovative design elements should include monitoring systems that can capture how these innovations have performed for wider dissemination and upscaling. Tackling nonpoint source (NPS) pollution through wetland construction and eco-compensation represents real innovation; however, the project completion report could have better outlined how these approaches worked in practice.
The state government should institutionalize road safety training and awareness among drivers and other road users, to help reduce traffic accidents. The project incorporated several road safety features. Although these helped reduce fatal accidents, there is scope to do more to improve road safety. Common causes of accidents on good roads are negligent driving behavior, neglect of traffic rules, excessive speeding, and/or lack of road safety awareness among road users. These problems are further aggravated in mixed traffic conditions.
Creativity in implementing subprojects to minimize safeguards issues is critical in avoiding major delays. This was demonstrated in the redesign of irrigation canals and the installation of a box culvert in one of the project sites.
Public financial management reforms require a long-term perspective to achieve the intended objectives, which are only likely to be achieved gradually.
While the reforms were implemented in stages, many key areas were implemented simultaneously and involved the buy-in of many stakeholders, including government line ministries.
The use of technical assistance loans should be carefully deliberated to ensure strong and sustained government commitment at the design stage.
Some achievements are initial gains which need further deepening and sustaining. These include revenue mobilization; the financial management information system; budget integration, particularly integration and management ofpublic investment management and asset management; and budget transparency and performance accountability.
Because of capacity constraints and experiences in legal drafting, legal and regulatory developments require a longer time which future ADB programs need to consider.