By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, January 3, 2018: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs 372.51 crore loan assistance under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) towards irrigation and rural bridge projects in Odisha for the last quarter of current fiscal.

A total number of 17,322 lift irrigation projects including bore wells, shallow tube wells, digging wells, micro river lifts shall be taken up with Rs 130.17 crore from the assistance, a release from the bank stated.

The assistance will help provide assured irrigation to about 36,440 hectares of agricultural land and thereby benefiting about 40,000 farmers of the state.

This apart, NABARD has also sanctioned funds for 14 rural bridge projects under Biju Setu Yojana with RIDF loan assistance of Rs 242.34 crore. This would help in addition of around 6222.89 metres of bridge length and benefit about 4.56 lakh population in 322 villages of the state, the release said.

The apex developmental bank has already provided financial assistance of Rs 10,000 crore to Odisha by the end of the third quarter of the current financial year. During the previous fiscal, the total assistance was Rs 14,715 crore.

Since inception of RIDF in 1995-96, NABARD has sanctioned cumulative financial assistance of about Rs 19,950 crore to Odisha resulting in implementation of about 2.24 lakh projects, the release said.