NABARD sanctions Rs 253 cr loan to Gujarat

Ahmedabad, Jan 4: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs 253.74 crore loan assistance to Gujarat Government for Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).

Accordingly, NABARD sanctioned a loan amount of Rs 196.67 crore for 450 Rural Road Projects in 24 districts of the state. The work involves improvement which includes widening and strengthening of the existing roads having poor riding surface. An amount of Rs 57.07 crore has been sanctioned for rural drinking water supply project in Panchamahal district. The project on completion will provide drinking water to 101 villages and Godhra town of Panchamahal district benefiting a population of 3.58 lakh.

With this, the cumulative sanction of assistance to Gujarat by NABARD under RIDF has gone up to Rs 6,214.04 crore in which the government has utilised an amount of Rs 3,900.55 crore so far.

RIDF is a loan from Nabard to the government which attracts 6.5 per cent interest for augmenting infrastructure in rural areas in order to eventually generate more rural income and employment and to ensure better remuneration and profitability to farmers in marketing their produce.

UNI