National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) Friday said it has sanctioned Rs 19,702 crore loan to National Water Development Agency (NWDA) for 50 irrigation projects. The loan is sanctioned under Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF), announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the Budget 2016-17. This would help create additional irrigation potential of 39.14 lakh hectares under these projects in 11 states, Nabard said in a statement.

Nabard today gave the first instalment of Rs 1,500 crore to NWDA, which is an agency of Ministry of Water Resources. Loan released by Nabard to NWDA would be disbursed to the respective state governments as central share in the projects sanctioned.

Besides supporting the central share component, Nabard would also be extending 15-year loan support to the willing state governments at reasonable rate of interest to meet their share in the identified irrigation projects,” Nabard chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala said.

He said the total fund requirement of all the irrigation projects under Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF) is expected to be of the order of Rs 78,535 crore in the next four years, with the shares of the central and state governments at Rs 31,342 crore and Rs 46,253 crore, respectively.

Through LTIF, the irrigation potential in the country is expected to go up by 11.50 per cent in the next four years, he added.