JICA fires Rs.4,000-cr in road sector

With the inking an agreement between Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Indian government, the former has committed to fund Rs.4,000 crore in the first phase of the North East Road Network Connectivity Improvement Project. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between JICA India Office chief representative Takema Sakamoto and joint secretary of the department of economic affairs of the Union Ministry of Finance, S Selvakumar. It may be recalled that Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan is provided at a concessional 1.4 percent interest rate for project activities and 0.01 percent interest rate for consulting services and offers a 30-year period of repayment (including 10 years of grace period). The financing is meant for improving connectivity in the northeast by constructing national highways and bridges. The project will contribute towards socio-economic development and regional connectivity where modern slope protection technologies will be used to address the problem of landslides in the northeast, said official sources, elaborating that under Phase I of the project, improvement of NH-54 and NH-51 in Mizoram and Meghalaya will be the focus. NH-54 is located in central Mizoram and the stretch of the targeted section of NH-54 is from Aizawl to Tuipang in Mizoram stretching to 350 km.