The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) loan assistance to the tune of Rs 372.51 crore to the Odisha Government towards irrigation and rural bridge projects.
This would benefit a total number of 17,322 private lift irrigation projects like bore-wells, shallow tube-wells, dug-wells, micro river lifts under the scheme Jalanidhi I and II with loan assistance of Rs 130.17 crore. This would provide assured irrigation to about 36,440 hectares of agricultural land directly benefitting about 40,000 farmers of the State.
Apart from this, the Nabard has also sanctioned 14 rural bridge projects under the Biju Setu Yojana with the RIDF loan assistance of Rs 242.34 crore which would add 6,222.89 metres of bridge length benefitting about 4.56 lakh population in 322 villages of the State.