"The Asian Development Bank and the Government of India signed here today an USD 80 million loan agreement to continue improving infrastructure in the two north eastern state capital cities," Finance Ministry said in a release.
The loan is the third tranche of a USD 200 million financing facility under the North-Eastern Region Capital Cities Development Investment Program and will be used for investments in water supply, solid waste management and sanitation in Agartala and Aizwal, state capitals of Tripura and Mizoram, respectively.
Previous program tranches have provided assistance to cities like Shillong (Meghalaya), Kohima (Nagaland) and Gangtok (Sikkim).
The loan agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Finance Ministry and Teresa Kho, Country Director, ADB's India Resident Mission.
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Separate sub-project agreements were also signed by state government representatives.
The loan has been granted from ADB's ordinary capital resources and carries a 20-year term.
For private sector to fill the remaining gap (3 per cent
of GDP), it must increase investment from about USD 63 billion today to as high as USD 250 billion a year over 2016-2020, ADB said.
Over 400 million people in developing Asia still do not have sufficient supply of electricity. Moreover, 300 million have no access to safe drinking water, while about 1.5 billion go without basic sanitation.
Many economies in the region lack adequate ports, railways, and roads that could connect them efficiently to larger domestic and global markets.
"Private sector is crucial to fill infrastructure gaps, ADB will promote investment friendly policies and regulatory and institutional reforms to develop bankable project pipelines for public-private partnerships," Nakao said.