The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned Rs 69.89 crore for infrastructure development as the 15th tranche of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF XV) to the Karnataka government. With this, the cumulative sanctions under the present tranche (RIDF XV) to the state have reached Rs 642.36 crore.
This includes Rs 19 crore for 31 minor irrigation projects, Rs 14.60 crore for construction of six government industrial training institutes, Rs 35.56 crore for 69 rural road and 35 bridge projects and Rs 73.14 lakh for the establishment of four rural markets, Venkatesh Tagat, chief general manager, Karnataka region said.
The 31 minor irrigation projects to be implemented by the state water resources department in the nine districts of Bijapur, Bagalkot, Koppal, Gulbarga, Haveri, Dharwad, Davanagere, Chitradurga and Chikkaballapur, on completion, would provide irrigation facilities to 1,837.42 hectares. The projects will also generate recurring employment of 100 jobs per year and non-recurring employment of 667,000 mandays.
The road and bridge projects will provide all-weather roads, to the extent of 184.80 km, to 92 villages, 27 rural marketing centres, and two pilgrimage places. This includes construction of bridge on Asangi-Alur road in Bagalkot district and construction of a bridge on the Madappadi-Khadyaru road in Dakshina Kannada district and one tourist centre, spread across 25 districts in the state.
Non-recurring employment generation from these projects, to be implemented by the three departments of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Public Works and Tourism, are expected to be 1.48 million mandays.
The projects for construction of buildings for six government Industrial Training Institutes, in Bangalore (rural), Kodagu, Shimoga and Udupi districts, would be implemented by the Commissioner of Employment and Training, Labour Department, and will provide a more comprehensive infrastructure facilities like classrooms, computer rooms, laboratory, workshops, toilet facilities, among others in these institutes. The projects are likely to generate non-recurring employment of 573,000 mandays and result in additional enrollment of students, Tagat said.
The four rural irrigation projects would be implemented by Karnataka State Agricultural Marketing Board in the three districts of Bagalkot, Gulbarga and Raichur, providing better infrastructure at these marketing centres and would generate non-recurring employment of about 26,000 mandays.