Kohima: The Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Paban Singh Ghatowar has told Lok Sabha that the World Bank would aid the DoNER in implementing the North East Rural Livelihood Project (NERLP) in eight selected districts of the four northeastern states with ‘soft loan assistance.’
Official sources here today said Nagaland has been selected with three other North Eastern states to receive assistance from the World Bank for over 144 million Dollar under a project designed to create employment opportunities for the ‘poorest of the poor’ in the rural areas of Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.
The project, which earmarked a total of 144.4 million dollar (Rs 683.2 crore), is for five years starting from the fiscal 2010-2011 and would create self-employment opportunities for the tribal and poor living in rural and remote areas of the selected states.
The project would be implemented in two districts of Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim and three districts in Tripura.
The districts are Aizawl and Lunglei (Mizoram), Peren and Tuensang (Nagaland), South, West and 15 Panchayat wards of East District (Sikkim) and West and North Districts (Tripura).
Mr Ghatowar said the duration of the project is five years, commencing from 2011. The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 683.2 Crore (US $ 144.4 million).
The World Bank will contribute Rs. 614.8 Crore (US $ 130 million) as IDA soft loan and Ministry of DoNER will contribute Rs. 68.4 Crore (US $ 14.4 million) from its budget allocation, the Minister told the Lok Sabha.
He explained further that the World Bank has provided an advance for Project Preparatory Facility (PPF) of US $ 1.215 million to finance expenditures required for preparation of the project, sources said. (UNI)