World Bank sanctions Rs 800 cr loan to Himachal

Shimla, May 2 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Secretary Ravi Dhingra today said the World Bank had sanctioned Development Policy Loan (DPL) worth Rs 800 crore to the state, out of which 400 crore had already been released in March 2008.

Mr Dhingra while presiding over a wrap up meeting held with visiting World Bank Mission team which was also attended by the Secretary (Finance) and Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of the department of MPP and Power, Revenue, Tourism, Education, Industries besides senior officers of Irrigation and Public Health, Forest and PWD.

He said the Mission team had come to the state on April 30 and held discussions for over three days with the concerned Secretaries with regard to fulfillment of various conditions necessary for the release of second tranche of 400 crore, adding that 90 per cent of the World Bank Loan comes as grant-in-aid and remaining 10 per cent is the concessional loan.

Chief Secretary stressed the need for monitoring all the action required by the concerned secretaries at personal level, so that second tranche release actions were met by August 2008, before the next visit of the World Bank Mission.

Team leader of the World Bank Mission Mohan Nagarajan expressed satisfaction with the overall progress made by the state government.

He informed that further satisfactory progress would facilitate the release of second tranche in September/October, 2008.

It was agreed between the state government and the World Bank that while working for the release of the second tranche of Rs 400 crore and state government would also progress issues for a second Development Policy Loan of 800 crore (90 per cent grant) for Himachal Pradesh.

UNI AS PS BDR BST2149