The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), Karnataka, is in talks with the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company, Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company and Hubli Electricity Company to extend a long-term finance of over Rs 500 crore. The present financing being done under its new initiative Nabard Infrastructure Development Assistance (NIDA), is a longer tenure product launched last year.
“NIDA enables the bank to extend financial assistances to the state government undertakings for development of infrastructure in rural areas. Karnataka is the first region where this programme, the first of its kind, was launched last fiscal. We have already closed a deal with the Karnataka State Warehousing Corporation for Rs 49.55 crore,” Venkatesh Tagat, chief general manager, Nabard, told Businesss Standard.
The new scheme was launched last year with a focus on providing direct funding support for development of infrastructure facilities for the promotion of agriculture and rural development.
Nabard is presently in talks with three of the five electricity supply companies in the state for long-term loan. “We are in active talks with all the three power distribution companies for extending them finance for taking up Nirantara Jyothi scheme in their respective operational areas,” Tagat said.
He said, already, the Gescom and Hescom have formally approached Nabard for finance while Bescom had not submitted its application yet. Hescom has sought a fund of Rs 300 crore. Of its project requirement of Rs 500 crore, the Gescom has not indicated any specific amount. Its total requirement is Rs 290 crore to implement the Niranthara Jyothi scheme. Bescom has indicated that it requires around Rs 150-175 crore to implement the scheme.
Niranthara Jyothi scheme envisages 24-hour power supply to non-agricultural consumers in all the villages in the state. The state government is implementing the programme at a cost of Rs 2,200 crore through the power distribution companies. This will ensure not only enhanced power to the villages, but will also improve the quality of power supplied to the irrigation pumpsets.
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Tagat said, Nabard has already entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka State Warehousing Corporation (KSWC) to extend financial support of Rs 49.55 crore for creating additional storage capacity. Through this funding, KSWC aims to create a new storage capacity of 106,000 tonnes in the state.
Under the NIDA scheme, Nabard has extended long-term loan assistance to the tune of Rs 42.15 crore directly to the KSWC without any government guarantee. The tenure of the loan is 10 years with an interest rate of 10 per cent, he said.