The State Projects Department (SPD) provides loans from the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) with the objective of supporting public sector capital investment in rural infrastructure through providing low cost fund support to State Govts and State-Owned Corporations. Over the years, RIDF has become an important source of public capital formation in the rural infrastructure space.

1. Genesis of RIDF

A major policy initiative for rural infrastructure development has been the setting up of RIDF in NABARD in 1995 for financing rural infrastructure projects.
RIDF was set up to fund infrastructure projects in states, which are incomplete due to lack of financial resources . Due to inadequacy of critical infrastructure, banks were unable to channelise their lending to agriculture as per priority sector guidelines.

The Government of India, therefore, announced setting up of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) in the budget of 1995-96, to be operationalised by NABARD towards financing of, at that time, the ongoing rural infrastructure projects in the irrigation sector. Subsequently, RIDF was made available for new rural infrastructure projects and its ambit was broad based to cover almost all important aspects of rural infrastructure.
Resources to RIDF are contributed out of the shortfall in lending to priority sectors by Commercial Banks as stipulated by RBI.

2. Core functions of the Department

The corpus of a particular tranche of RIDF is decided by Government of India every year. Annual Corpus under RIDF is allocated among all states on the basis of prescribed norms comprising of

• Geographical Area of the State
• Inverse of Composite Infrastructure Development Index
• Share in National Rural Population and Rural poverty rate
• Inverse of Credit/Deposit Ratio and inverse of per capita PS credit
• Performance under RIDF (Average disbursements and utilisation of drawables)
• Average sanctions for Agriculture (including Irrigation) and Drinking Water projects

The amount of contribution by banks to a particular tranche of RIDF is communicated by RBI based on the level of priority sector shortfall. The concerned banks are called upon by NABARD as and when funds are required for disbursement.

NABARD provides financial assistance to the State Governments for projects covering 37 activities broadly classified under three heads, i.e. Agriculture & Related Sector, Social Sector, and Rural Connectivity.
Eligible projects are prioritised and submitted by the State Governments through their Finance Departments to the respective Regional Offices (ROs) of NABARD. The projects are appraised by NABARD’s Regional Offices and forwarded to NABARD Head Office where they are placed before a Project Sanctioning Committee (PSC) or Internal Sanctioning Committee (ISC) for consideration for sanction.

Rural Infrastructure Promotion Fund (RIPF) has been created with an initial corpus of Rs 25 crore and operationalised from September 1, 2011 with an objective to promote capacity building among stakeholders as also for supporting innovative/experimental/promotional infrastructure especially in rural sectors. The activities/projects supported under RIPF are in the nature of experimental prototype projects, which are likely to have positive impact on promotion of sustainable infrastructure development in rural and agricultural sectors.

3. Broad achievements under RIDF

RIDF Tranche I was placed with NABARD during 1995-96 with an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore. The annual corpus has now reached to Rs 29,763 crores under RIDF XXVI (2020-21).

Cumulative Sanctions & Disbursements as on March 31, 2021

From RIDF I to XXVI, NABARD has sanctioned total 7,09,318 projects involving loan assistance of Rs 3,90,563 crore to State Governments as on March 31, 2021 (including for warehousing projects).

Of this, an amount of Rs 3,05,177 crore (78%) has already been disbursed. In addition, Rs 18,500 crore was sanctioned and disbursed for rural roads under Bharat Nirman. This translates to total sanctions of Rs 4,09,063 crore and total disbursements of Rs 3,23,677 crore (79%)

Sector-wise Share of Cumulative Sanctions

Sector-wise cumulative RIDF loans sanctioned as on March 31, 2021 (Rs.3,90,563 crore), accounted for:

• Agriculture, irrigation and allied sectors (44%)
• Social sector (18%)
• Rural roads and bridges (38%)

The estimated cumulative economic and social benefits under RIDF as on 30 September 2020 were as under:

Benefits of RIDF Projects:

NABARD's support for creation of Rural Infrastructure through RIDF has resulted in considerable benefits such as:

• Commitment of funds under RIDF sanctioned projects has enabled State Governments to take up the implementation more expeditiously
• Financing incomplete projects has resulted in unlocking of investments already made by the State Governments, thus, realising the full benefits of the projects
• Creation of additional irrigation potential, generation of non-recurring employment and creation of jobs has contributed to the economic prosperity in the rural areas
• Monitoring of the projects has resulted in timely implementation of majority of the projects and has reduced the time and cost overrun

Completion of projects through RIDF assistance from NABARD has helped in growth of core sectors in rural areas by spurring the demand for credit from Banks.

4. On-going projects and schemes:

State-wise, Tranche-wise details of closed/on-going projects/ schemes and broad sector-wise details are given in Annexure I and II. .

• Annexure I
• Annexure II

II. Long Term Irrigation Fund

Long Term Irrigation Fund (LITF) was operationalised in NABARD during 2016-17 for fast tracking the completion of the 99 identified Medium and Major Irrigation projects, spread across 18 states, in mission mode by December 2019. Subsequently, GoI approved the funding for Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, North Koel project in Bihar and Jharkhand, Relining of Sirhind and Rajasthan Feeders in Punjab and Shahpur Kandi Dam in Punjab within the ambit of LTIF. Further, GoI approved the continuation of the arrangement for funding of the 99 prioritised projects under PMKSY-AIBP and CADWM up to March 31, 2021 or till the continuation of the scheme is approved, whichever is earlier, within the scope, nature, coverage and size of the approved scheme.

Under LTIF, NABARD provides loan towards Central share as well as State Share with a tenor of 15 years. The Central share is provided to National Water Development Agency (NWDA), an agency working under the aegis of Ministry of Jal Shakti, GoI, whereas the loan towards State share is availed by the State Governments.

Loans towards Central share are entirely funded through Extra Budgetary Resources (EBRs) in the form of Government of India backed fully serviced bonds while the State share is entirely funded through market borrowings. The loans are extended to State Governments at 6% per annum and the difference between the cost of fund for NABARD and 6% is compensated by the Government of India through Interest Subvention.

Cumulative loan sanctioned and released as at the end of March 31, 2021 was Rs. 84,326.60 crore and Rs. 52,479.71 crore respectively. The details of State-wise sanction and release of funds as on March 31 , 2021 are given as under:
State-wise cumulative loan sanctioned and released as on March 31, 2021 is appended:

III. Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana - Grameen (PMAY-G)

III.Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana - Grameen (PMAY-G) aims at providing a pucca house with basic amenities to all households and those households living in kutcha and dilapidated house, by 2022. Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India (GoI) is the nodal Ministry for PMAY-G and the scheme is being implemented by the State Govts.,UT. The scheme envisages construction of 2.95 crore houses; one crore houses under Phase I (2016-17 to 2018-19) and 1.95 crore under Phase II (2019-20 to 2021-22)

NABARD has been extending loan to National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of GoI, towards part funding of Central share under the Scheme since 2017-18. Loans towards funding under PMAY-G are extended through Extra Budgetary Resources (EBRs) in the form of Government of India backed fully serviced bonds. As on March 31 2021, the total sanction and release by NABARD stood at Rs 61,975 crore and ` 48,819.03 crore respectively.

As reported by MoRD, GoI, as against the target of 2.95 crore houses to be built in rural areas under PMAY-G, construction of 1.30 crore houses is completed as on February 27, 2021.

IV. Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G)

SBM-G was launched by Govt. of India with effect from October 2, 2014 with the goal to achieve universal sanitation coverage in rural areas by October 2, 2019. Ministry of Jal Shakti, GoI is the nodal Ministry for SBM-G and the scheme is being implemented by the State Govts/UT.

NABARD has extended loans during 2018-19 and 2019-20 to National Centre for Drinking Water, Sanitation & Quality (NCDWS&Q), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of GoI, towards part funding of Central share under the Scheme. Loans towards funding under SBM-G were extended through Extra Budgetary Resources (EBRs) in the form of Government of India backed by fully serviced bonds. The cumulative sanction and disbursement as on March 31, 2021 under the scheme stands at Rs 15,000 crore and Rs 12,298.20 crore, respectively.

The loan assistance from NABARD has facilitated construction of 3.29 crore household toilets during 2018-19 and 2019-20.

V. Micro Irrigation Fund

Micro Irrigation Fund with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore was operationalised in NABARD from 2019-20. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India is the Nodal Ministry. The objective of the fund is to facilitate State Govts’ efforts in mobilising additional resources for expanding coverage under micro irrigation and incentivising its adoption beyond provisions of PMKSY-PDMC. The corpus was to be utilised during 2018-19 and 2019-20. However, continuation of implementation of MIF was further extended for 2020-21.

Under MIF, the State Governments are provided loans at 3% below the cost of funds; the 3% being compensated by the Govt. of India as interest subvention.

As on March 31, 2021 the cumulative sanction and release under MIF stands at Rs 3,970.17 and Rs 1,827.47 crore, respectively. This helped these State Govts. in their efforts to expand micro irrigation to an area of 12.83 lakh ha involving 10.20 lakh farmers, of which about 78% are SF/MF. As reported by the MoA&FW, GoI, against 12.83 lakh ha, an area of 4.23 lakh ha has been covered by the concerned States as on December 1, 2021.

State-wise cumulative loan sanctioned and released as on March 31, 2021 is appended:

As per the announcement made in the Union Budget 2021-22, the initial corpus of Rs 5,000 crore under MIF has been augmented by another Rs 5,000 crore.

Contact Information

Shri Asit Kumar Mohanty
Chief General Manager
8th Floor, 'D' Wing
C-24, 'G' Block
Bandra-Kurla Complex
Bandra (East), Mumbai 400 051
Tel: (91) 022-26530068, (91) 022-26539238
Fax: (91) 022-26530101
E-mail Address: spd@nabard.org

Information under RTI – Section 4(1)(b)