India inks $ 432 million loan agreements with ADB

NEW DELHI: The government today signed two loan agreements worth $ 432 million with multilateral funding agency Asian Asian Development Bank ( ADB).

Of this, $ 300 million loan will help the Madhya Pradesh government to upgrade about 1,000 km of State highways in the eastern and west central parts of the state, a finance ministry press statement said.

As part of the loan package, ADB is additionally providing technical assistance or grant worth $ 1 million to support road safety and private sector participation in state highway development and maintenance, it added.

With the completion of this project, the entire state highway network of Madhya Pradesh will be upgraded, it said.

Besides, a $ 132 million loan agreement was signed for strengthening Bihar's power sector.

The major portion of the ADB loan $ 130.3 million will be used to finance infrastructure such as transmission lines, the statement said.

The remaining $ 1.9 million will be used for strengthening the internal capacity of the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB), it said.

The loan will be used to install new transmission lines and to renovate and modernise transmission and distribution facilities to improve the quality and reliability of the state's electricity supply network.

ADB will assist BSEB with project implementation and construction supervision, including training in the maintenance and operation of high-voltage distribution systems (HVDS), it said.