Nepal Civil Aviation - This activity supports the Government of Nepal in identifying high-impact air transport investments, practices, and policy changes to improve domestic and regional air connectivity. The focus is on five priority areas: enhancing airports' efficiency, aviation safety, essential air services, framework for the development of new airports, and air transport industry development. The activity is currently focused and envisaged to be directly beneficial to the Government of Nepal, in terms of identifying high impact air transport investments, practices and policy changes that improve domestic and regional connectivity through enhancing civil aviation safety, improving the operational and financial performance of key airports, and increasing infrastructure and organizational capacity. These findings and recommendations are also expected to be beneficial for neighbouring countries and areas in the region that are facing similar challenges.
Nepal Civil Aviation
Bhutan Sustainable Hydropower Development
Bhutan Sustainable Hydropower Development - This activity builds upon a three-year WB engagement resulting in the adoption of the Guidelines for Development of Hydropower projects in 2018. The activity will strengthen the capacity of power sector agencies in Bhutan to plan and prepare regional hydropower and transmission line projects. Bhutan’s estimated financing requirements for developing 2.94 GW hydropower projects in the pipeline up to 2026 is $11 billion.
PSA Port Environment and Social Analysis in Bangladesh
PSA Port Environment and Social Analysis in Bangladesh – Studies under this activity include an E&S scoping study; critical habitat screening study; a gap analysis of land acquisition and livelihood impacts review; contextual risk assessment; shoreline change modelling and assessment of impacts on areas of high biodiversity value; dredging impact assessment, including dispersion plume modelling value; and climate change risk assessment.
South Asia Power Pool
South Asia Power Pool – This activity consisted of analysing demand and supply in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, barriers to the cross-border power trade, existing cross-border transactions and procedures, and a preliminary analysis of transmission infrastructure. In February 2021, IFC completed the market analysis, which highlighted key findings related to electricity demand and supply scenarios for India, Nepal, and Bangladesh; policy and regulatory barriers in these countries; detailed assessment of the top five power traders in India; and mapping of transmission interconnections between the countries.
Patenga Container Port Terminal PPP Project
The Chattogram Port, situated in the South of Bangladesh, is the countrys largest seaport and handles over 92% of the country’s seaborne trade. Bangladesh's exports have to be carried in feeder vessels to the region’s hub ports of Colombo, Singapore, and Tanjung Pelepas to link up with deep-sea services. IFC's Advisory project will provide transaction advisory assistance to the PPP Authority and the Chittagong Port Authority to select an experienced private sector operator to equip, operate, and maintain a dedicated container terminal at Patenga and improve management efficiency.
This will help de-congest and modernize the Chattogram Port, as well as to address the growing container cargo traffic (forecasted to increase to 7.6 million TEU by 2043). When completed, the Patenga Container Terminal is expected to increase the port's container handling capacity by 500,000 TEU by 2025 and involve $60 million in private sector financing.