The negotiation will be held in Washington from 14th to 17th of this month.
Though the bank has in principle agreed to provide loan for this project, the details of the assistance including the interest rate and repayment period will be worked out during the negotiation, official sources said.
Tank irrigation is considered to be the oldest method of irrigation in Orissa and the state has about 28,303 tanks. The state government intends to utilise this source for irrigating additional land as about 3646 tanks are relatively large.
Accordingly, the Orissa government in association with the Union government has initiated a project to repair and rehabilitate about 900 minor irrigation tanks having a command area of 40 to 2000 hectare in the state with assistance from the World Bank.
Sources said, the project will be implemented over a period of six years in all the districts of the state except Jagatsinghpur which does not have any minor irrigation tank system.
OCTMP aims at improving the agricultural productivity of selected tank based producers and equipping the water user association to manage the tank irrigation system effectively. The community based institutions like Panipanchayats are proposed to be strengthened through development of human resources and strengthening of local institutions.
The actual rehabilitation work required for the tanks will be decided on a case to case basis and a
