National

ADB to double aid to India

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 22. The Asian Development Bank plans to extend $ 8 billion assistance to India for the next four years at the rate of $ 2 billions a year which would mean a doubling of the flow of $ 1 billion at present.

The thrust of the ADB funding would continue to be on infrastructure projects such as railways, national highways, inland waterways and the power sector, the ADB Director-General (South Asia), Yoshihiro Iwasaki, told presspersons here after finalising the bank's operational strategy and assistance programme for India with Union Finance Ministry officials today.

"The mission will recommend to the management of ADB an assistance programme totalling about $ 8 billions over the next four years, or an annual assistance of $ 2 billions, and the board is expected to consider this by the end of March,'' Mr. Iwasaki said. Apart from infrastructure funding, ADB would also focus on poverty alleviation programmes in Chhattisgarh, Assam and Sikkim.

Mr. Iwasaki said 70 per cent of the new loans would be for power, roads, railways, inland waterways and gas distribution systems, another 14 per cent for urban infrastructure and the remaining for agriculture, rural development and financial sector projects.

In another development, ADB plans to float rupee-denominated long-term bonds worth $ 100 millions in Indian capital markets following clearances from the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

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