World Bank approves $250m assistance for India's disaster

The world bank has approved USD 250 million assistance for India's disaster-hit northern province of Uttarakhand, the state run television Door Darshan (DD News) news channel reported Sunday. Torrential rains, flash floods and landslides triggered devastation in ecologically sensitive Uttarakhand on June 15. Following the devastation which claimed lives of thousands of people, India sought assistance from the World Bank to rebuild Uttarakhand. "In order to respond in a timely manner, the project was fast-tracked under the World Bank's emergency procedures and was prepared within a three-month period," said a World Bank press release quoted by the news channel. World Bank's country director in India Onno Ruhl said they had dispatched a team to Uttrakhand capital Dehradun from the day the request for assistance was sent by the government. "We all know winter is quite harsh in these parts and so it was important for us to get the project going and help shelter people before winter hits them," he noted. "Disasters, like the one we witnessed in Uttarakhand, can roll back decades of development and are a fundamental threat to economic development and the fight against poverty," Ruhl said, adding "this project will focus on both reconstruction and disaster preparedness." The country director said that the world bank will help the government of Uttarakhand with immediate relief efforts by building houses and public infrastructure including small roads and bridges. "A very important part of the project will be to help the state be better prepared for the future," he added. The June calamity in the hilly Uttarakhand state killed around 6,000 people including tourists and pilgrims who were on their way up to kedarnath shrine. Majority of the dead and missing during the calamity were piligrims who have gone up in the mountains to tour the sacred hindu Kedarnath shrine. Kedarnath hosts a sacred shrine form the Hindu devotees and is one of the four in the famous four shrines tourist circuits. It was almost completely wiped out in the disaster resulting in killings of hundreds of people. The disaster also washed away roads, habitations and other infrastructure in the region.