States can borrow directly from foreign agencies for infra projects

State governments will furnish guarantee for the loan; Centre will provide counter guarantee

The Union Cabinet has approved new rules to allow financially sound state government entities to borrow directly from other countries which give Official Development Assistance for major infrastructure projects. 

In such cases, the state government concerned will give a guarantee and the Centre will provide a counter-guarantee. 

For instance, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, a Maharashtra government entity, would be allowed to directly take an ODA loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Rs 17,854 crore Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link project. The JICA loan portion is expected to be Rs 15,109 crore. 

The existing guidelines did not allow direct borrowing