Project management

Enhanced project readiness filters need to be applied to future projects to minimize or avoid the challenges encountered in this project, which commonly occur in
infrastructure projects. These challenges included (i) insufficient construction equipment at the work sites; (ii) contractors’ chronic working capital shortages; (iii) non-payment of local contractors and/or suppliers, resulting in shortages (e.g., of materials and fuel); and (iv) a lack of capacity for efficient project management

Engagement of dedicated safeguard specialists could help strengthen safeguard implementation capacity. A project management and construction supervision
consultant served as focal point for safeguards. No major issues in safeguards were identified.

Maintaining key specialists even after major institutional changes helps keep institutional memory within the executing agency and is important for successful project implementation. During project implementation, the government’s economic reform caused institutional changes in the road sector. Despite the change, key members of project management unit remained unchanged, which helped minimize delay.

A timely and amicable settlement of disagreements between the executing agency and consultants and/or contractors should be worked out to the extent possible to avoid court cases and minimize the associated costs. The executing agency (EA) terminated the contract of the consultant for institutional capacity development on grounds of performance. As a result, both parties presented arguments to the dispute board and the matter is under the purview of Honorable High Court of Jharkhand.

Although it did not negatively impact the program, submission of the monthly and quarterly progress reports was irregular throughout the MFF implementation. This cannot go unattended under the second MFF, as without timely reporting, program management will not be in a good position to address the implementation challenges, especially those unforeseen at MFF and individual tranche approval. The program management unit should establish a mechanism to regularly monitor physical and financial progress per contract.

Timely partial cancellation of unutilized loan funds should be undertaken to save on commitment charges. Disbursement projections at effectiveness were not met because of initial procurement delays. However, the projections revised during implementation were realistic, with over 90% of loan amount disbursed by project closure in 2017. When it was anticipated that entire loan funds may not be utilized even within extended loan period, the executing agency (EA) could have undertaken partial cancellation of loan funds. This would have allowed some savings in commitment charges.

Timely resolution of involuntary
resettlement and land acquisition issues helps avoid delays in project implementation. Oftentimes,
land acquisition issues encountered by the executing agencies impede the timely implementation
of procurement and civil works. Ensuring the safeguards’ requirements on land acquisition and
resettlement, prior to execution of project activities, could mitigate these related project risks due,
for example, to potential grievances of affected people and communities

Revision in project scope that involved a change and realignment with the project pipeline needs timely approval to reduce any cost and time overrun.

Appropriate change in scope in response to detailed technical design to improve the original outline plan and project design at preparation stage supports delivery of expected outputs in a timely and cost-effective manner.

A flexible approach to safeguard policies without strict adherence to established procedures or methods facilitate timely physical construction progress while ensuring the smooth implementation of resettlement plans. For instance, in the case of the construction of the elevated flyover from Jehangir Chowk to Rambagh, a sectional approach was proposed by ERA and approved by ADB. This approach allowed land acquisition to be carried out in a sequential basis within identified sections rather than requiring completion of all resettlement actions in advance of project commencement.