Agriculture Finance : To Fund Irrigation Projects NABARD to Raise Rs 77,000 Crore

To fund around 100 prioritised irrigation projects, including 56 in drought-prone areas, under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKYS) over the next four years, the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will raise in phases over Rs 77,000 crore from market.

During the signing ceremony of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the Ministry of Water Resources and NABARD, Union Minister Uma Bharti made the announcement for raising a long-term irrigation fund (LTIF) of Rs 20,000 crore. The government has decided to irrigate an estimated area of 76.03 lakh hectares with more focus on increasing irrigation potential utilisation.

The remaining Rs 57,000 crore would be raised through NABARD in case states fail to pool their share of fund for completing the irrigation projects, said a senior official.

26 will be completed in Maharashtra, in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, 14 and 11 irrigation projects will be completed respectively of the total projects.

During the ceremony, she said, “This is a historic moment when we are preparing to irrigate over 70 lakh hectares of land (by signing the MoA). These projects will help address concerns in drought-hit areas. The respective states too have been cooperative.”

It was also attended by Minister of State for Water Resources Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Water Resources Ministers of Chhattisgarh (Brijmohan Agarwal), Maharashtra (Girish Mahajan) and Telangana (Harish Rao), besides senior officials of the ministry.

The bank will provide Rs 20,000 crore for 23 irrigation projects to be constructed in phase 1 of the PMKSY by March 2017 and from the market we are raising around Rs 13,000 crore shortly, said H K Bhanwal, Chairman of NABARD.