World Bank loan for roads

The World Bank today approved a loan of $620 million to upgrade the stretch of National Highway No 28 between Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Muzaffarpur in Bihar on the East-West National Highway Corridor.

This is the fourth project under the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) to be supported by the World Bank. It would help reduce transport costs and open up access to the north-east regions.

"This project will benefit road users travelling the 483 km stretch between Lucknow and Muzaffarpur. It will cut down the travel time and operating costs, while making the journey safer," said Piers Vickers, senior transport specialist for the World Bank and task leader for the project.

The Lucknow-Muzaffarpur National Highway Project mainly involves upgrading the highway. Its primary beneficiaries will be commercial road users who account for 65 per cent of the traffic, a World Bank release said.

The secondary target group are the people living adjacent to the road. A recent study has shown that living close to the highway decreases a household's chance of being poor by 17 per cent and increases its access to work by 32 per cent. School enrollment is also increased by 40 per cent with proximity to the highway.

The Lucknow-Muzaffarpur stretch is a part of the 7,300 km North-South East-West corridor, which is included in the second phase of the NHDP. The NHDP involves widening of more than 14,300 km of the national highways linking the four metros and the diagonals at a cost of Rs 54,000 crore.

While the multilateral funds for the first phase or the Golden Quadrilateral linking the four metros have already been tied up, this would be first tranche of World Bank loan for NS and EW corridor development or the diagonals of the quadrilateral.

The government expects about Rs 7,000 crore or $1,500 million of multilateral assistance for the North-South and East-West corridor development.