L

New Delhi, Sep 27 (UNI) Larsen and Toubro Road Corridor Ltd and a consortium of banks, headed by Citigroup today said it has signed Rs 5 billion financing deal for L&T's Palanpur-Swaroopganj road project.

The funding will be done through domestic Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR) and External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) funds.

The 16.5-year financing is the first project finance transaction in India since 1999 that involves international banks and has the longest tenor ECB financing ever done in the Indian markets.

In addition to Citigroup, other banks involved in the deal are India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFC), Bank of Baroda and Abu Dhabi commercial bank.

''We are very happy with the result achieved in a record time from the beginning to end. The Citigroup team worked very closely with the L&T team throughout to achieve financial closure, surmounting many tough problems along the way,'' L&T Vice President K Venkatesh said.

Such financial innovations would go a long way in facilitating India's infrastructure development, he added Citigroup India and area head CEO Sanjay Nayar--- Bangladesh, Srilanka and Nepal said that the deal is another milestone in its effort to leverage its infrastructure projects in India, especially in areas such as power, ports and urban developments.

UNI KR DKS KP2016