NABARD funding for rural infrastructure crosses Rs one lakh crore mark

The disbursal includes loans to 28 states and the union territory of Puducherry as well as to the National Rural Roads Development Agency to support the rural roads component of Bharat Nirman,the release said.

Some of the states which availed themselves of maximum financial support from NABARD for rural infrastructure are Andhra Pradesh (Rs 9,711 crore),Uttar Pradesh (Rs 7984 crore),Gujarat (Rs 7,324 crore),Tamil Nadu (Rs 6,523 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 Rs 1.03 lakh crore was disbursed to the governments against 4.48 lakh projects worth Rs 1.28 lakh sanctioned to them 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).

The loans are given to state governments for creating infrastructure conducive not only to boost demand for agricultural credit but also to enhance the productivity of credit.

RIDF was set up with NABARD by the GoI in 1995-96 with an initial corpus of Rs 2,000 crore. The funds were sourced by the RBI from Scheduled Commercial Banks in proportion to the extent of their shortfall in agriculture lending.

For the current year (under RIDF XVII),an amount of Rs 2,000 crore has been earmarked specifically for creation of warehousing infrastructure in different states.