UNDER THE Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs 3,245 crore for irrigation and rural drinking water supply projects in Gujarat for 2021-22.

"This is the highest allocation for loan assistance to projects in the state," said a senior NABARD official. Compared to the Rs 2,989 crore sanctioned in 2020'21, the sanctioned amount under RIDF for 2021-22 was 8.5 per cent more.

According to NABARD, the cumulative loan assistance sanctioned under RIDF since 1995'96 to Gujarat government is Rs 35,225 crore for 63,172 projects. Of these, Rs 13,409 crore (38 per cent) was allocated in the past five years, officials said.

The irrigation projects to receive sanction for 2021-22 are two packages of SAUNT Link 3 project worth Rs 336 crore. The Saurashtra-Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojana or SAUNI Yojana has been launched to divert one million acre feet of flood Waters from Narmada to Saurashtra region.

The Link 3 of SAUNI will connect 28 reservoirs of Rajkot, Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Morbi and Surendrnagar with a 66-kilomewater projects TFUND FOR R]URAL INFRA PROJECTS Year Amount 2017-18 Wg 2,242 cr 2018-'19 ggg 32423 cr 2019-20 g 32,509 cr 2020-'21 32,989 cr 2021-'22 33,245 cr tre pipeline from Dholidhaja dam in Surendrnagar to Venu-1 dam of Rajkot.

The other irrigation projects to receive sanction include a Rs 194-crore lift irrigation project in tribal district of Dahod, Rs 273 crore Panam reservoir based lift irrigation scheme, Rs 114 crore Panam high level canal based lift irrigation scheme and Rs 231 crore Vaghrech recharge project. These irrigation projects will increase the irrigation facilities by 75,112 hectares.

Under the Rural Drinking Water Supply project under the Jal Jeevan Mission, Rs 1,006 crore has been sanctioned for providing functional household tap connections to 85.76 lakh peoplein eight districts of Gujarat.

Apart from this two rural drinking water supply projects Rs 293 crore Budhel to Borda bulk pipeline (in Bhavnagar)and Rs 794 crore Dhanki to Navda bulk pipeline for 68.4 lakh rural population has also been approved during 2021-'22.