The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned soft-loan of Rs 4392-crore to the Orissa government under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) since the inception of the scheme in 1994. The amount includes Rs 398 crore sanctioned this year.
The state has undertaken as many as 1,03,800 different rural infrastructure projects in sectors like irrigation, rural connectivity, animal husbandry, rural market and drinking water supply by utilizing the funds, said the general manager of the apex rural bank, AK Mukhopadhyay.
Out of them, 72,149 projects have been completed. Mukhopadhyay was addressing a workshop on the RIDF scheme of Nabard and provisions of its execution here. The executive engineers of different departments including the rural development, public works and irrigation of south Orissa districts attended it.
Stating that around 44 percent of the total loans sanctioned to the state under RIDF were utilized in the irrigation sector, the Nabard general manager said, when all the irrigation projects including the minor irrigation projects (MIPs) and lift irrigation projects (LIPs) are completed, an additional irrigation potential of 3.75 lakh hectares would be created in the state.
Similarly the rural connectivity would be provided to 25,000 villages under the scheme. Stating that the scheme is meant for development of the rural infrastructure, which is closely linked to the economic development of the state, he underscored the need to finish of the projects in time.
The Nabard has launched the RIDF scheme since 1994 with an aim to improve the rural infrastructure facilities in the country. In last 15 years, the apex rural bank has sanctioned loans to the states depending on their requirement.
The bank recently sanctioned an additional Rs 38 crore to the Orissa government under RIDF. With this, the cumulative sanction under the RIDF-XV to the state has increased to Rs 378-crore. The financial assistance would be utilized for construction of four drainage systems, two MIPs, modernization of irrigation canals and improvement of three irrigation systems, the sources said.