Analysis of The Case: GROUND ZERO: Strategic Management

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Analysis of the case: GROUND ZERO

Group Assignment 3
Submitted to
V K Ranjith
By
Group 11
Jenifer (091202023)
Shalma (091202043)
Deepthi (091202046)
Abhishek (091202106)
Sushmita (081202047)
The case is about the infrastructural development project proposed for the Mannur
town.
Mannur, one of the many biggest towns in the coastal regions of Southern India came
into existence as a local body in 1866 and was later converted into a city corporation in 1980.
It again expanded in the year 1995. The city is known for its roof tiles, arecanuts, lumbering
and trading in dry fish. It is spread across an area of 115.6 square kilometres with a total
population of 4,20,000. Once the Konkan railway was constructed the Mannur city was
connected to Mumbai city and facilitated it in trading. With the establishment of the Mannur
refineries it has added an industrial angle to the city. Over the period of years Mannur has
been connected to the rest of India with transportation links such as railways, roadways,
waterways and airways.
With an objective of improving the infrastructural facilities in the Mannur city and
with the funds aided from Pan Asian Development Bank(PADB) headquartered in Toyoto,
the Government of India decided to take up this project and implement it to improve drinking
water, drainage, sanitation and roads in selected coastal towns of India. This responsibility
was given to the state government through Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal
Environmental Management Commission (KUDCEMC) which was a state owned consulting
firm. This project would cover about ten towns of Karnataka and the people of these towns
could reap the benefits of a well designed comprehensive water supply system, good road
facilities, reduced slum areas and overall would provide increased city sanitation and
hygienic conditions.
The decision makers in PADB, KUDCEMC, MCC and other nine towns found that most
important measures for the success and sustainability of the project were:
• Local resources generation and improved municipal management.
• Improved cost recovery for water supply and waste water management and solid
waste collection.
• Capacity building of municipal governments.
• Urban and environment planning.
• Community participation.
As the projects main concern was environment improvement, the preparatory technical
assistance team conducted examination for possible adverse impact from the project and also
how to improve urban environment in the towns covered by it. The result said that there was
no such negative effect on the environment and they’ll help to cope with strong pressures due
to population and economic growth.
The surveys and workshops included social aspects such as poverty, gender issues,
educational level and patterns of employment, housing conditions and levels of access to
social services and infrastructure and willingness to pay for services. The initial project aimed
at curbing poverty and social disadvantages, improving conditions of slums, low cost
sanitation, and solid waste management.
Karnataka had a strong resettlement policy; PADB removed subprojects and eliminated
scope for resettlement. In case any resettlement would be required it would be taken care of
in later design stage with appropriate relocation arrangements and compensation measures
according to state policy.
Key Issues
• An investment of $251.4 million was needed for funding infrastructure projects

proposed by KUDCEMC.
• For funding, help from foreign organizations was not feasible.
• Water supply (Rs.107.9 million) and drainage (Rs.135.7 million) were the major
investments.
• General Public felt the revised tariff to be unreasonable.
Suggestions
• Awareness – Bringing awareness to the general public and making them comprehend
about the benefits that they would gain from the project has to be done by Mr.
Shendge.
• Creating a Vision – Mr. Shendge must help the public see what inheritance the project
can build for the coastal area in future.
• Building Strong Ties - As Mannur is becoming a destination for major trade, he
should make use of the options and involve private companies into the funding of the
project. They may even join hands with MCC is necessary.
• Participation - Community participation can be an option, where in, decision making

can be done collectively, which in turn would also bring a sense of oneness among the
locals.
• Reach Out - To people by methods of viral marketing and through the local news
papers. NGOs could play a big option here.
• Providing Employment – for the local people would benefit both of them. MCC can
compel the government to get into contracts with PADB. This may bring down the
rate of interest for this project. If the Japanese don’t agree, then only a portion could
be funded by them and a major chunk can be funded by Government loans or any
other source that is reasonable. As the interest reduces, the tariffs also reduce. The
considerably increased tariffs could be reduced and increased at the smallest
proportion, periodically.
• Other Measures - The corporation could also be involved and find other schemes to
gather tax. The plan for water supply and drainage system has to be revised and cost
cutting should be done wherever required and possible. This is sure to bring down the
cost of the project.
Though Mannur’s economy was improving the sources of revenue was minimal and this
project required huge amount of resources to make good investments and relying on the
minimal sources of revenue was quite insufficient.
Approaches which could have been thought of:
An effective awareness campaign would help in active participation about the project.
The widening and upgrading of critical roads in project towns would require to pay a
certain amount of compensation to the people who have their land/property/houses along the
road paths, this would increase the cost of project. What could have been done in this regard
is to build roads in those areas wherein not many people have their land/property. This will
help in reducing the expenses.
Instead of fully availing on loans, in which the repayment of loans would also result
in paying up of huge amount of interests, alternate methods of raising resources should be
sought of.
Taxes are finally borne by the people who avail the facilities. But since people belong
to different economic classes within the society, all people cannot pay the same amount of
taxes. Hence the burden should be reduced for those classes of people who are not capable of
paying it.
***

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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Analysis of the case: GROUND ZERO

• Local resources generation and improved municipal management.

• Capacity building of municipal governments.

• Urban and environment planning.

• An investment of $251.4 million was needed for funding infrastructure projects

• For funding, help from foreign organizations was not feasible.

• General Public felt the revised tariff to be unreasonable.

• Participation - Community participation can be an option, where in, decision making

Approaches which could have been thought of:

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