By IANS,
New Delhi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Tuesday offered $252 billion loan for development of rural roads in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal.
Representatives of the ADB, Indian government and respective state governments signed the loan agreements here.
“The loan represents the first tranche of a $800 million financing facility under the Rural Connectivity Investment Programme,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
The money will be used to construct 3,461 km of all-weather rural roads in the five states, benefiting nearly 1,600 rural habitations.
“The second goal is to improve the capacity of implementing agencies through rural connectivity training and research centres and rural roads network management units,” it said.
The federal ministry of rural development is the executing agency of the project at the central level while the implementing agencies at the state level will be the respective state rural roads development agencies.
The first tranche is expected to be completed in December 2015.