West Bengal and Karnataka recently received Rs 284.51 crore and Rs 90.12 crore, respectively, as grants from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development  In a bid to help rural India prosper, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has recently come out with a slew of proposals comprising NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance (NIDA). NIDA, which focuses on agriculture and rural development sectors, covers projects that have a longer time frame of more than 10 years. This was developed after various state governments expressed their keenness to borrow long-term loans during recent meetings. Besides, NIDA would cater to a lot of high-value rural infrastructure development projects in various states across India. Till now, NABARD, which is committed to rural prosperity, failed to cover these high-value projects under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) due to paucity of funds under normative allocation.
State sanctions
Of late, NABARD sanctioned Rs 90.12 crore to the Karnataka government for developing rural infrastructure comprising segments such as roads, bridges and educational institutions (secondary schools, first grade colleges, industrial training institutes and backward class hostels). Sanctioned under RIDF, most of these projects would come up in the 14 districts of the state that were hard hit by flood in 2009.
The loan would help the state government develop 78 rural road projects covering a total length of 237.12 km and rural bridges aggregating a length of 2,555.84 metres; these projects in combination is likely to connect 693 villages with 241 marketing centres.
Speaking to a TJCD correspondent, Ashok Kumar Singh, managing director of Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL), said, “The loan would undoubtedly boost rural infrastructure development in the state.” Commenting further on the state government’s efforts to build rural infra, Mr Singh mentioned about the Swarna Gram Yojana, which was launched in 2007, with a focus on developing and upgrading roads and sewerage condition as well as constructing anganwadi centres in the state.
Apart from Karnataka, West Bengal also received Rs 284.51 crore as loan from NABARD. To get hold of further details, the journal contacted the NABARD West Bengal regional office and spoke with Dr Debesh Roy, who is the assistant general manager of the state regional office.
“NABARD plans to sanction a total of Rs 850 crore to the state for rural infrastructure development in 2010-11,” says Dr Roy.
Under the present sanction, 100 road projects will be developed for an estimated amount of Rs 279.89 crore across 18 districts of the state. These road projects are expected to generate non-recurring employment to the tune of 104.91 lakh man days, adds Dr Roy. Moreover, the sanction includes one bridge project in Sundarban for Rs 4.62 crore.
The West Bengal government is very keen on improving road connectivity across districts, said Dr Roy and signed off.
Jeeta Bandopadhyay |
