Transport, energy and urban development will be the core focus of Asian Development Bank?s (ADB) in India over the next three years 2008 -10.
According to an ADB paper titled: ?India: Country operations business plan 2008-2010?, support the development comes after stakeholder-consultations that reconfirmed the need for greater assistance in agribusiness infrastructure, rural finance, rural roads, irrigation and improved water resources management.
The three-year programme include loans to improve water resource management: The Orissa Integrated Irrigated Agriculture and Water Management project has been earmarked for 2008 with a $200 million fund while the North Eastern States Integrated Flood Control and River Erosion Mitigation project will have another $200 million funding in 2009 and in 2010, the bank will loan a similar mount for the Sustainable Coastal Zone Protection and Management project.
The bank has also plans to fund $250 million in Bihar and Maharashtra under the Agribusiness Infrastructure Development loans in 2008 and will support integration of small farmers into agricultural value chains through investments in infrastructure by improving agricultural connectivity, which include rural roads and power supply, establishing connection and primary processing centres in production areas. ADB also will assist in improving market information and agro-technology besides capacity-building outreach for the farming communities, says the report.
Among other plans in the pipeline are to consolidate operations in weak states such as Assam, Chattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and those in the north-eastern region through greater assistance for capacity building.
Given the urgency of reducing inter-state disparities, operations will be initiated in the relatively poorer states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa over the next three years, says the approach paper.