Rs 6,523-crore aid for rural infrastructure

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has received Rs. 6,523 crore financial support for rural infrastructure from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).The loan is presently available at 6.5 per cent interest per annum to state governments for creating infrastructure conducive not only to boost demand for agricultural credit but also to enhance the productivity of credit, according to NABARD sources. Interestingly, loans disbursed to 28 states and Union Territory of Puducherry as well as to the National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA) to support the rural roads component of Bharat Nirman by NABARD crossed the One lakh crore cumulatively and stood at Rs. 1.02 lakh crore as on September 20, 2011.Some of the other states which availed themselves of maximum financial support from NABARD for rural infrastrucrture were Andhra Pradesh (Rs. 9,711 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs. 7984 crore), Gujarat (Rs. 7,324 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs. 5,464 crore), Maharashtra (Rs. 5,493 crore), Rajasthan (Rs. 5,406 crore) West Bengal (Rs. 4,694 crore) and Karnataka (Rs. 4,406 crore).The loans were disbursed to the state governments against 4.48 lakh projects spread over 31 broad activities as per the infrastructure requirements in the rural and agricultural sectors.Maximum funds were utilised for irrigation and agriculture (40 per cent), followed by rural roads (33 per cent), rural bridges (12 per cent), rural drinking water supply (9 per cent) and social sector (6 per cent).  These loans are   presently available at 6.5 per cent interest per annum to state governments for creating infrastructure conducive not only to boost demand for agricultural credit but also to enhance the productivity of credit.For the current year under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF XVII), Rs. 2,000 crore has been earmarked specifically for creation of warehousing infrastructure in different states. This has opened a new channel of funding from NABARD to support streamlining of storage of food grains at the production, distribution and consumption levels, not only for state governments, but also for government-owned and supported entities and private sector entities which supplement storage requirements for agricultural and allied sector products.