The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has further sanctioned loans amounting to Rs 713.94 crore towards creating rural infrastructure in 12 states. The project-sanctioning committee of Nabard, chaired by chairman Y C Nanda, met last week to take a decision on various rural infrastructure projects. To date, the committee has cumulatively sanctioned loans to the tune of Rs 3,592.36 crore to 22 states under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) VII during 2001-02. The corpus of this fund stands at Rs 5,000 crore.
Maharashtra was sanctioned loans Rs 143.69 crore, followed by Karnataka (Rs 95.05 crore), Rajasthan (Rs 89.38 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 85.84 crore). Andhra Pradesh was sanctioned Rs 73.64 crore, Tamil Nadu (Rs 71.54 crore), Haryana (Rs 54.58 crore), and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 41.79 crore). Other states such as Chhattisgarh and Sikkim were sanctioned relatively less at Rs 26.03 crore and Rs 1.98 crore, in accordance with the projects sanctioned for funding.
In seven states, projects for 1,079 roads, covering a total length of 5,042 km and 205 bridges covering a total length of 6,704 metre, have been sanctioned. This will improve and provide connectivity to villages and marketing centres in these states. Seventy-four rural water supply projects have also been sanctioned, which will provide drinking water to 11.37 lakh population in 567 habitations in Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. A further 92 irrigation and another 92 flood protection projects have also been sanctioned. This will create and restore a potential for irrigated cultivation in 91,504 hectare in eight states.
States such as West Bengal and Karnataka have decided to set up primary schools and health care centres for young children and pregnant and nursing mothers.
