Rs 14,000 crore corpus proposed for Rural Infrastructure Development Fund

The Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) is the main instrument to channelize bank funds for financing rural infrastructure, and it is quite popular among State Governments. It has been proposed to raise the corpus of RIDF-XIV in 2008-09 to Rs. 14,000 crore. It has also been proposed to operate a separate window under RIDF-XIV for rural roads with a corpus of Rs. 4,000 crore.

All phases of the National Highway Development Programme continue to make progress. The completion ratio in the Golden Quadrilateral is 96.48 per cent and in the North South, East West Corridor project is 23.36 per cent. Special attention is being paid to SARDP-NE, a programme devised for the North Eastern region. 180 kms of roads were completed in 2007-08 and the target for 2008-09 is 300 kms. It has been proposed to enhance the allocation for the NHDP from Rs. 10,867 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 12,966 crore.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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