Indian government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a 300-million-dollar loan on September 8, 2021 to expand rural connectivity in Maharashtra.

Highlights:

=> Loan agreement was signed as additional financing in order to scale up improvement of rural connectivity.

=> Additional financing for the “Maharashtra Rural Connectivity Improvement Project” will help in improving additional 1,100 rural roads and 230 bridges with total length of 2,900 kilometres in 34 districts of the state.

Maharashtra Rural Connectivity Improvement project:

It is an ongoing project in Maharashtra that was approved in August 2019 with 200-million-dollar financing. The project is already maintaining and improving the condition and safety of 2,100 kilometres of rural roads.

Significance of the project:

New project is expected to generate 3.1 million person-days of employment for local communities. 25 percent of the jobs will be for women, over the construction and maintenance periods. Under the project, a gender action plan has been prepared in order to focus on capacity development of women workers so that they get benefit from semiskilled and unskilled labour opportunities.

Asian Development Bank (ADB):

ADB is a regional development bank that came in existence on December 19, 1966. It has its headquarter in Philippines. ADB maintains 31 field offices across the world. It seeks to promote social and economic development in Asia. Members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) as well as non-regional developed countries can take the membership of bank. It started its functioning with 31 members but now has 68 members.