pnn, pti
Bhubaneswar, Jan 1: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has provided financial assistance of Rs10,562 crore to Odisha by end of the third quarter of the current financial year. During the previous fiscal, the total assistance was Rs14,715 crore, a release issued by the bank here Monday said. Under refinance channel, NABARD has so far extended Rs4,861 crore to cooperative banks for production of crops by about 3 million farmers in the state. Under Long Term Refinance scheme of NABARD, banks in Odisha have availed credit support of Rs624 crore, which have facilitated creation of private sector farm assets.
For infrastructure creation, the bank extended financial support to the tune of Rs2,118 crore to the state government, the release said.
Assistance has also been given by NABARD for creation of rural infrastructure such as roads and bridges, lift irrigation projects, rural piped drinking water project, warehousing and irrigation structures, it said. Since inception of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) in 1995-96, the NABARD has sanctioned cumulative financial assistance of about Rs19,950 crore to Odisha resulting in implementation of about 2.24 lakh projects. As an impact, roads of about 9,700 kilometres, bridges of about 1.20 lakh metres and irrigation in 27.61 lakh hactares have been created in the state out of RIDF Funds, the release said.
