Amaravati: Nov 27: The World Bank in principle agreed to extend Rs 500 crore ($70 million) for a watershed project in Andhra Pradesh.
A seven-member World Bank team met the Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Peddireddy Ramanchandra Reddy, on Wednesday. The team agreed to extend a loan of Rs 500 crore, over a period of five years, to fund 70% of the watershed project. The state government will bear rest of the 30% of the project.
The Minister held detailed discussions with the WB officials and reviewed the implementation of the project.
The state government would implement and oversee the project with a consortium of the State Rural Development Agency, agriculture department, AP Space Applicable Centre and the Agriculture University.
The WB team said the watershed programme would involve protection of water resources in areas where there is water scarcity.
Similarly, awareness would be created among farmers about modern farming techniques and soil fertility tests would be conducted through APSAT.
It is to be noted that the World Bank in July had "dropped" out of the Amaravati Sustainable Infrastructure and Institutional Development Project, pushing the state capital city’s development into jeopardy. Under the proposed EAP, the World Bank was to lend $300 million while the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) was supposed to lend another $200 million for development of Amaravati.
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