India on Monday inked seven agreements with Japan under which loans worth a total Rs.8,632 crore are to be provided as Official Development Assistance (ODA) for various infrastructure development projects in different states, including the Bangalore Metro.
According to a Finance Ministry statement here, through the “Exchange of Notes” between the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Joint Secretary, Prabodh Saxena, and Japanese Ambassador to India Akitaka Saiki, Japan has committed an amount of 155.549 billion yen (about Rs.8,632 crore) for the second batch of 2009-10 ODA programme of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The ODA package is to cover a host of sectors such as power, energy, urban transport, road safety, forestry and financial services spread across various states. For instance, while a loan amount of Rs.1,031.74 crore is intended for a high voltage distribution system project in Andhra Pradesh, a sum of Rs.1,024.36 crore is meant for Madhya Pradesh's transmission system modernisation project.
An allocation of Rs.1,665 crore each has also been made for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) energy saving project (second phase) and the new and renewable energy development project. In the urban transport sector, the Bangalore Metro rail project has been earmarked a sum of Rs.1,100.67 crore for its second phase of development. In the road sector, the Bihar national highway improvement project has been allocated a sum of Rs.1,271.11 crore while the second phase of Rajasthan's forestry and biodiversity project will receive a loan of Rs.874.06 crore. While India continues to be the highest recipient of ODA from Japan, “with today's Exchange of Notes, the cumulative commitment of ODA from Japan has reached JPY 3320.369 billion,” the statement said.
