Centre, ADB sign $300 million loan to expand rural connectivity in Maharashtra

The additional funding for the ongoing Maharashtra Rural Connectivity Improvement Project will help improve an additional 1,100 rural roads and 230 bridges for a total length of 2,900 kilometers (km) in 34 districts, the ministry said.

The ongoing project, with $200 million funding approved in August 2019, is already improving and maintaining the condition and safety of 2,100 kilometers of rural roads across Maharashtra.

After signing the loan agreement, Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, said that with the additional funding, the overall project will be on the condition and safety of 5,000 km of rural roads and over 200 bridges connecting rural communities. will improve. With productive agricultural areas and socioeconomic centers in Maharashtra.

Takeo Konishi, country director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, said better connectivity via climate-resilient, all-weather rural roads will help Maharashtra accelerate economic recovery from the Covid shock by creating rural jobs and transforming agriculture .

The new project is expected to create approximately 3.1 million person-days of employment for local communities, of which at least 25% will be for women in the construction and maintenance period.

The ministry said that a gender action plan has been prepared to focus on capacity development of women workers so that they can take advantage of semi-skilled and unskilled labor opportunities.

The additional funding will rebuild and rehabilitate roads and bridges in Maharashtra that were destroyed by the devastating floods in August 2019.

The design includes flood and climate resilience measures, pilot testing the use of eco-friendly materials on selected road sections, use of mobile mapping technology to monitor project roads and use of new technologies such as fiber-reinforced concrete and pre-cast concrete arch bridges is included. .