Asian Development Bank (ADB) & Government of India (GoI) signed a USD 231 Million (~ INR 1688.5 Crores) Loan Agreement for the Assam Power Sector Investment Program (APSIP) for the construction of Lower Kopili Hydroelectric Power (LKHEP) plant. This is the 3rd Tranche Loan for the program which was approved by ADB board in July, 2014.

i.The main purpose of the Loan agreement is for increasing the Electricity Generation Capacity in the State of Assam through construction of a 120 Megawatts (MW) hydroelectric power plant over Kopili River.

ii.A USD 2 Million grant from Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) is also associated with the project to finance equipment & consulting services.

iii.The signatories to the Loan Agreement were Dr C. S. Mohapatra, Additional Secretary in Ministry of Finance who signed for India & Hoe Yun Jeong, Officer-in-charge of ADB’s India Resident Mission, who signed on behalf of ADB.

Key Points:

i.The hydroelectricity project will increase availability of electricity for households.

ii.The project will increase electricity supplied from Clean Energy by 469 Gigawatt-hour (GWh) by 2025 & reduce Greenhouse Gas emission by 3.6 Lakh Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide annually.

Other purposes of the Loan:

i.For project capacity building of Assam Power Generation Corporation Limited (APGCL) on construction, operations & maintenance and safeguards.

ii.To Finance APGCL’s enterprise resource planning system.

iii.To improve Gender equity & enhance gender capacity of APGCL.

iv.It will improve women’s participation & contribution in training & community-led interventions.

Assam Power Sector Investment Program (APSIP):

i.APSIP is supported by ADB, it aims to increase the generation capacity in Assam to 1, 410 MW & reduce distribution losses to 15% by 2022.

ii.In July 2014, ADB agreed to provide an Loan amount of USD 300 Million for the APSIP through Multitranche Financing Facility (MFF).