ADB loan push for state corridor

KOLKATA: The Mamata Banerjee government has got another big boost before the chief minister’s London visit on July. The screening committee of the Department of Economic Affairs under the union Finance Ministry has cleared loan approval of receiving $500 million Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan to the West Bengal government for setting up the 231 km long North South corridor from East Midnapore to Murshidabad that will cross six districts and move parallel to NH-34.This is the highest amount of ADB loan granted for any ADB assisted single project in the country.
A meeting of the screening committee was held recently in which this project was put up by the state government. The total cost of the project, to be executed by the West Bengal Highway Development Corporation Limited (WBHDCL) is estimated as Rs 4,696 crore.
Officials said that the corridor would help to remove the critical bottlenecks in freight movement not only from the northern parts of the state and north eastern states of the country but also from the neighbouring countries like Bhutan and Nepal to Haldia and Paradeep.
According to the plan, the corridor will run across six districts on the western side of the Ganges parallel to NH-34 and would serve at least 40% of the total population of the state, connecting a 231 km stretch from Mechogram near Haldia in East Midnapore to Morgram near Jangipur in Murshidabad. The corridor will connect the important national highways of NH-6, NH-2, NH-60 and NH-34. The corridor will also reduce travel distance of Morgramm – Haldia port for about 60 km and will reduce about three hours of travel time in comparison to NH-34. Kharagpur and the south west part of the country will get shorter connectivity to north east in addition to the faster connectivity to Haldia from states like Bihar, Jharkhand and the north eastern states along with Nepal and Bhutan.
In the meeting the Central government officials have asked the WBHDCL officials to proceed with the land acquisition and other pre-construction activities required for the corridor to be set up. “Land acquisition would not be any problem. The land losers will be paid a compensation of almost 1.5 times more the price on which the land will be bought,” government officials said.
It was finally decided in the meeting that the state government would be able to avail ADB’s loan assistance of $ 500 million, which amounts to about Rs 3,200 crore based on present exchange rate, in various tranches using the multi-tranche financing facility and that the state government would undertake civil works for the corridor using its budgetary resources. The state government will be able to avail ADB’s retroactive financing when the loan becomes effective, as it was decided. While ADB loan will consist of about 70% of the total project cost, the rest 30% will be borne by the state government.
Officials said that at the begining it will be a two-lane stretch and later assessment will be done to identify areas where the corridor could have four lanes. “The project is expected to start off by next March after all the formalities including the tender process is completed, an official said.