January 16 : National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) would be funding Net Present Value (NPV) and Bus Stand Construction Projects in Himachal Pradesh. This was revealed by Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, after having a meeting with a high level team of NABARD which was headed by Shri S.K.Mitra, Executive Director of the Bank held with him here today.
Chief Minister said that the State Government had raised the matter with the NABARD authorities to allow NPV as integral part of project being posed by the State Government from time to time under different RIDF programmes to NABARD for funding and had ultimately convinced the Bank authorities to allow the same as part of the project cost. He said that there were a number of road construction projects pending execution for payment of NPV for use of forest land in rural road construction and with the consent of the NABARD to include NPV in the project cost would help in accelerating construction work of the road projects. He thanked the NABARD authorities for agreeing to pay NPV upto ten percent of the project cost. He said that NPV would henceforth be an integral part of the project cost under RIDF Programme and help the State in completion of all pending road projects in rural areas expeditiously.
Prof. Dhumal said that NABARD had also agreed to fund construction of bus stands in rural areas as an eligible activity under RIDF. He said that the State Government promise was to consider such an activity as a totality concept involving creation of infrastructure to support buses transit parking and within and around which, a hub for marketing of farm and non-farm produce was expected to evolve. He said that the State Government had approached the Bank to consider the proposal since the rural bus stands were not only places for arrival and departure for buses, but utilized as rural marketing centres where wide range of rural produce and products were being made available for sale to the public generating additional income by creating new employment opportunities to the rural people. He said that rural marketing infrastructure near to bus stands happened to be the most visited place by the people where marketing of rural products also take place. He said that with the quality infrastructural facilities in rural bus stands the marketing activities of rural produce would also get boosted up thereby generate employment avenues to the rural people.
Chief Minister requested NABAD authorities to consider Rs. 120 crore project for creation of a strong network of veterinary dispensaries in all the left out gram panchayats all over the State in a phased manner for completion in two years after carrying out rationalization of the existing veterinary institutions. He said that the State Government had proposed construction of 1,200 veterinary dispensary by spending Rs. 10 lakh over infrastructure creation on each such project. He also raised other matters with the NABARD authorities which included extension of RIDF IX and XII, priority to the Transmission and Distribution System, reduction in the interest rate, maintenance of RIDF assets, revision of completion period of projects, delegation of sanction powers to NABARD Regional Office, priority to the Rural transportation infrastructure etc. He said that NABARD had been major contributor in quality infrastructure creation and the State had risen to the expectations of the Bank by carrying all such activities as per the guidelines of the Bank. He said that the State would be looking forward for more such partnerships with the Bank in its future projects as well.
Shri S.K.Mitra, Executive Director, informed the Chief Minister that the Bank had agreed to allow inclusion of NPV as integral part of the rural road projects and also fund the rural bus stand construction projects with a view to generate additional income to the rural people. He said that the Bank would also be considering the proposal of the state government to fund construction of veterinary dispensaries project besides other demands sympathetically at the appropriate level. He lauded the performance of the State Government in different sectors where NABARD had been a funding partner.
Shri Bhim Sen, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Shri Ajay Tyagi, Principal Secretary Finance, Shri S.T.Raghuraman, Chief General Manager, NABARD and other senior officers of the State Government and NABARD were present.