$200-mn second tranche funding to Amaravati project

Amaravati: The World Bank, which has pledged $800 million for the Amaravati Capital Phase-I develop-ment, is expected to disburse the second tranche of $200 million by the end of this year, a senior official of the Andhra Pradesh government said on Thursday.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have each committed to fund $800 mil-lion, totalling 1600 million (Rs13,600 cr), for Amaravati capital city phase-I development. Addi-tionally, the Centre will fund Rs1400 crore, out of the Rs15,000 crore committed by it for Phase-I of the development.

As part of its commitment, the World Bank has already released $207 million, of which nearly 50 per cent was spent on various works, S Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary ( Municipal Admin-istration and Urban Development) said.

“Almost about, I think around Rs 1800 crore or something they have released already. So out of that I think we have, I think only about less than 50 per cent only we have spent till now. I think before December we should be able to claim the next instalment. It will be around a similar amount only,” he told PTI.

Once the state government spends 75 per cent of the first tranche of loan ($207 million), it will be able to raise the next bill so that the WB would release the amount. According to the official, inspections by teams of WB and ADB happen regularly every month in Amaravati. “So they both will verify the records. They will also have meetings with our teams, CRDA (capital region development authority) officers and then they will also conduct field inspection. They also inter-act with me every month,” he added. The World Bank has recently, in an update on the project, expressed satisfaction over the implementation of the works.