indian roads

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing funds of Rs49.23bn ($737.47m) for five road development projects in the north-eastern states of India.

Indian Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: "Five sub-project proposals of north-east connectivity projects have been posed to the Government of Japan/JICA for Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) official development assistance (ODA) loan for Rs49.23bn."

Around Rs2.85bn ($42.6m) and Rs16.61bn ($248.8m) have been respectively set aside for the improvement of NH-51 and NH-54.

JICA has reviewed the Rs36.31bn ($543.9m) loan for the phase one of road connectivity improvement projects in the north-east, reported PTI.

"Five sub-project proposals of north-east connectivity projects have been posed to the Government of Japan."

Last month, it was reported that Japan had offered to finance India’s first bullet train project between the western cities of Ahmedabad and Mumbai, a distance of 505km.

Likely to cover 80% of the $15bn project, the loan was to be granted at an interest rate as low as 1%, provided that India agrees to buy 30% of required equipment from Japan.

The equipment would include coaches and locomotives, unidentified officials were quoted by media reports as saying.

Japan’s International Cooperation Agency undertook the feasibility study of the project that would reduce travel times between the two cities from 7h to 2h.

The bullet train is expected to have speeds between 300km/h and 350km/h.

Image: India’s north-eastern states receives funds for road development. Photo: courtesy of sakhorn38 via freedigitalphotos.net.