The Ministry of Rural Development has signed an MOU with the Maharashtra Government and WARANA Rural Roads Development & Maintenance Co-operative Society Limited for construction and maintenance of rural roads in the districts of Kolhapur, Sindhudurg and Sangli in Maharashtra. This pilot project is the first of its kind in the country and is to be implemented under the aegis of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), one of the premier programmes of the Government. The project will cover construction of about 1000 kilometres of rural roads in these three districts, costing over Rs.100 crore.
Shri Kashiram Rana, Union Minister of Rural Development expressed the hope that the first ever Public Private Partnership Project of such a size will surely be an example for others. In future, there will be many more people coming forward for similar projects. Shri Annasaheb M.K. Patil and Shri U.V. Krishnam Raju, Ministers of State for Rural Development were also present there.
WARANA Co-operative has undertaken not only to construct the roads by raising its equity and borrowing money from the Infrastructure Development and Finance Company Limited (IDFC), but also to maintain these roads for fifteen years at their own cost. The quality of roads under this initiative will be at least at par with the high quality of roads built under the PMGSY. WARANA Co-operative will be generating resources for this project through the yield from selected fruit trees to be planted on both sides of these roads. The Co-operative Society will have full rights over the yield from these trees.
Financial Resources for the construction of the roads will be provided by IDFC as loan to the Co-operative. The Ministry of Rural Development will provide additional funds under the PMGSY to enable repayment of the loan amount over a sufficiently long period of time and also to service the debt. The additional funds will flow from the diesel cess being levied under the Central Road Fund Act. The Maharashtra Government has extended full co-operation for this Public-Private-Partnership initiative.
(Release ID :876)