AHMEDABAD, July 18: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is poised to become the first civic body in the country to float a bond issue of Rs 100 crore to part finance its unique self-financing Rs 325 crore slum improvement partnership (SIP) project to be implemented over a period of seven years.According to a highly placed AMC source, their lead manager, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (ILFS), has almost finalised the prospectus to be sent to SEBI. ILFS arranged a presentation here on Thursday evening specially to involve the participation of `really pedigreed merchant bankers' and interested corporate houses.ILFS people have already set up an office in the city and are hopeful of floating the bond as soon as SEBI they get clearance from the SEBI and Union Finance Ministry."As it will be the first-ever bond to be issued by any municipal corporation in the country," the source said, "We are going ahead with utmost cautious optimism. This is going to be the trend-setter for other civic bodies to raise funds through bonds."The source said the merchant bankers have been shortlisted, the quantum of bonds for public and private allotments have been finalised, the interest rates and other details for the prospectus are the final stage of preparation.The ILFS on its part is also learnt to have selecting Ahmedabad municipal corporation after much consideration of factors like the civic body's image, human resources, organisational structure and system, financial health and the like.As per SIP, the source said, it aimed at rehabilitating nearly 3 lakh families through a self-financing project, providing overall improvement of these families, including housing, drinking water, sewer, solid waste management, landscaping, upgrading their technical skills. AMC will contribute 33 per cent of the physical developments, 70 per cent of community development.According to AMC sources, a pilot project has already been successfully completed at Sanjaynagar in the city on 20,871 sq metres of land, populated by vegetable vendors.
