Nitin Gadkari urges banks to provide long-term loans for irrigation

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has urged banks and multilateral institutions to come forward with long-term loans at nominal interest rates for financing irrigation and river linking projects. 

The minister made the remarks while delivering the keynote address at the third annual meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in New Delhi on Tuesday. 

Noting that many parts of the country are facing shortage of water, he said the problem could be solved by diverting water from water



surplus basins by inter-linking rivers. 

Mr Gadkari also stressed on checking wastage of water that flows into sea. 

He said, the government’s priority is to stop the wastage of nearly 3,000 TMC of Godavari water and transfer it to water-starved Cauvery basin. 

He said, the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh is among the priority project. 

Mr Gadkari said, for such projects the government needs low interest loan.