Orissa to get Rs 1,070 crore WB loan

Business Standard, 22nd July, 2008


The World Bank will provide loan assistance of Rs 1,070 crore (approximately $250 million) to the Orissa State Road Project (OSRP).
A formal agreement for the loan assistance has been signed. The World Bank loan covers 80 per cent of the project cost while the rest 20 per cent will be financed by the state government.
The loan will be repaid over a period of 25 years including a grace period of 5 years.
Though the World Bank did not agree to share the land cost of the project, it agreed to provide Rs 25 crore for the re-construction of the high level bridge over river Bansadhara at Gumuda.
The loan was sanctioned following detailed negotiation between a team of senior state government officials and the World Bank representatives in the presence of the senior officials of the department of economic affairs (DEA) in Washington.
The issues pertaining to road sector development and institutional strengthening action plan (ISAP) were presented by the works minister, A U Singhdeo to the state cabinet and approved in June 2008.
Approval of the ISAP was one of the pre-conditions of the World Bank for loan negotiations.
Under the OSRP, a total of 461 kms of road will be improved to two lane road with paved shoulder and reconstruction of the bridge on Bansadhara near Gumuda will be taken up.
In the first phase of the project, 204 kms of road will be constructed. It includes construction of 68km Bhawanipatna-Khariar road, 95 km long Chandbali-Bhadrakh-Anandapur road and 41 km Berhampur-Taptapani road.
Similarly, the construction of 257 kms of road will be taken up in the second phase. This includes Taptapani-Raipanka road (68 km), Raipanka-JK Pur (83km) and Jagatpur-Chandabali (106km).
Official sources said, the contract for Berehampur-Taptapani road has already been awarded and bids for Bhawanipatna-Khariar and Chandbali-Bhadrakh-Anandapur roads are under evaluation.
Besides, these roads, feasibility report and the bid documents for the four laning of the 165 km Sambalpur-Rourkela road, two laning of the Joda-Bambry road (with paved shoulder) and two laning of the 46 km Koira-Tensa-Lahunipara (with paved shoulder) is under preparation.
It may be noted, the appraisal of the OSRP was completed in November, 2007 and the loan negotiation was scheduled to be held in January, 2008.
However, the negotiation could not take place due the issue of submission of the audit report of the health sector development project. Accordingly, the negotiation was delayed by about 6 months.