Nabard to fund Telangana’s water plan

Hyderabad: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has come forward to fund Mission Kakatiya and Telangana Water Grid projects, the flagship programmes of TRS government. Nabard officials met Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at the Secretariat on Saturday and offered to extend financial aid of Rs 500 crore and Rs 1,000 crore during the coming financial year (2015-16) for both the schemes.

The chief general manager of Nabard, Hyderabad unit, Jiji Mammen said, that they are already funding Rs 360 crore for Mission Kakatiya this year (2014-15) for restoration of tanks and water bdies and would extend another Rs 500 crore during 2015-16. He told Mr Rao that the drinking water supply project would be funded from Nabard infrastructure development fund as part of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) loan. He also assured the CM that with government guarantee, Nabard would also bring down the rate of interest.

However, he urged the government to divide the water grid project works into pieces so that they can extend financial aid in a phased manner every year. However, Mr Rao did not respond positively. He said the water grid is different from other drinking water schemes and said it requires laying of pipelines over a large extent and orders will be placed accordingly on quantum basis. The pumpsets are customised, he said. Mr Rao said once taps are provided to every household in municipal and urban areas, people may come forward to pay for the facility and the amount thus generated will be paid back to Nabard.

The execution of the project requires approvals from about a dozen departments at various levels such as forests, revenue, panchayat raj, roads and buildings etc. and any delay on the part of any department would affect the entire project. The ordinance will ensure speedy approvals.