The World Bank (WB) has, in its largest rural road project ever, agreed to extend a $1.5-billion (about Rs 6,800 crore) loan to India for building 24,000 km of all-weather roads.
The agreement to supplement the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) was signed in the presence of World Bank group president Robert B. Zoellick and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday.
The funding will be used to build more roads in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Other states may also join the programme at a later date over the next five years.
"Delivering much needed infrastructure will help India in its drive to ensure all people have opportunity," Zoellick said. He said the bank's efforts are to bring the best development practices from around the globe to India and to share India's experience and expertise with others.
The construction and maintenance of these roads will create an estimated 300 million person-days of employment for the rural people. More than 20,000 engineers as well as many contractors and skilled and unskilled workforce will be trained in modern rural road engineering practices and business procedures.
The WB and India also signed a $255-million agreement for Phase-1 of the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP), to be implemented by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
More than one million people living in the coastal areas of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh would benefit from the programme. Close to 500 million people, or half of India's population, live in 13 cycloneprone states and Union Territories, including Gujarat, West Bengal, Daman and Diu.
The WB president, who is visiting India, also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P. Chidambaram. Zoellick said the bank is pleased to support the Centre's efforts not just with finance but by offering the development experience and technical knowledge the WB has gained around the world, he said.
Talking of inflation, he said, "My own sense in the case of the Indian economy is that some of the inflationary pressures are more due to bottlenecks on the supply side than they are from the demand side."
Courtesy: Mail Today
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