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The funds sanctioned by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to Odisha under different categories of loans — refinance support and direct loans- has crossed Rs 10,000 crore in 2014-15, an increase of 57 per cent over the previous fiscal.
The disbursement of loans during the fiscal has also registered a 35 per cent surge over 2013-14, crossing Rs 8,000 crore.
“Odisha has always been one of the biggest benefactors of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) of Nabard under which loans are extended to the state government for starting critical rural infrastructure projects for irrigation, roads, bridges”, a Nabard release read.
In 2014-15, the sanctions under RIDF- XX was Rs 2,652 crore, up by 150 per cent over the previous year and forming more than 10 per cent of the all-India availability of funds under RIDF, the highest allocation to any state in the country.
The disbursement under various tranches of RIDF crossed Rs 1,500 crore in the fiscal providing critical financial support to the state for completing execution of the rural infrastructure projects.
The cumulative RIDF sanctions and disbursements in the state stood at Rs 11,995 crore and Rs 7,654 crore respectively by March end, 2015. The fund assistance in the state is estimated to have brought about irrigation facility in 21.66 lakh hectares and created road length of 8129 kilometres and bridge length of nearly 1.18 lakh metre.
Under the warehouse infrastructure fund, the Odisha Regional Office of Nabard has committed a loan support of Rs 964 crore to the state for construction of more than 3,375 rural godowns in the primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) in various districts of the state, with a total capacity of 7.3 lakh tonnes, with separate godowns for food grains and fertilisers.
Refinance for short-term loans of Rs 4,900 crore were also sanctioned and disbursed by Nabard to the Odisha State Cooperative Bank and the Odisha Gramya Bank and Utkal Grameena Bank during 2014-15. Nabard has also provided term loan refinance support of Rs 457 crore to regional rural banks (RRBs), cooperatives and commercial banks in the state.
Nabard is closely coordinating with the banks for implementation of Area Development Schemes for fisheries, dairy and farm mechanisation with a total financial outlay of Rs 130 crore in 2015-16, the release added.
