Date:25/02/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/02/25/stories/2005022511280400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Rs. 468-crore NABARD loan for State

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, FEB. 24. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has sanctioned Rs. 468.95 crores as loan for the State Government for implementing various projects.

The projects have been sanctioned under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund at the 76th meeting of the Projects Sanctioning Committee in Delhi on February 22. The aggregate loan approved by the bank in 2004-05 under RIDF now stands at Rs.1,460 crores.

The projects include rural roads, bridges, rural water supply schemes, bio-diesel plantation schemes, animal vaccine production and disease diagnostic units and comprehensive land development works.

A press release by NABARD said on Thursday the projects include 30 roads and 16 bridges in 12 districts with a loan assistance of Rs.54.28 crores. These would improve connectivity to 338 villages and 106 marketing centres. The comprehensive land development projects were designed primarily to develop compact blocks of land assigned to SCs/STs and landless poor.