JBIC extends Rs 7,074 crore ODA loan package to India

New Delhi, Mar 10 (UNI) Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) today signed an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan package with India amounting to Rs 7,074 crores (185,575 million yen).

Appreciating the increasing commitment of Japanese ODA to the country since FY 2003-04, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, the total ODA loan commitment from Japan in FY 2007 now stood at Rs 8,582 crore (225,13 million yen) and this is a 21.76 per cent increase from last year's ODA commitment which was 184,893 million yen.

This is also the highest ever ODA loan commitment from Japan to India and the country continues to be the highest recipient of ODA from Japan, the Finance Minister added.

As the country's infrastructure segment witnesses a booms, enormous investments are being pooled in but as the projects have long gestation periods, most of these projects are not financially viable on their own.

This is where the Japanese ODA helps as it is a long tenure and low interest loan and is beneficial to for funding large infrastructure projects, Mr Chidambaram said at the Note Exchange ceremony, which was held here today.

The notes were exchanged between Finance Joint Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna and Japanese Ambassador to India Hideaki Domichi.

The Finance Minister said this year's ODA package includes projects like the Delhi MRTS, Kolkata East-West, Hyderabad Outer Ring Road and Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure development Projects.

He added that the inclusion of Hogenakkal Water Supply and Fluorisis Mitigation Project in the ODA package serves a long standing demand of the people of Tamil Nadu.

With today's Exchange of Notes, the cumulative commitment of ODA from Japan has reached Rs 1,01,497 crore (2662,56 million yen).

The Japanese government had committed Rs 1,508 crore for two projects--Goa Water Supply and Sewerage and Maharashtra Transmission System Projects--in the first batch of FY 2007.

UNI SR BJR ND2108