AIIB to fund urban transport projects worth US$ 3 billion in India

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): In the stretch of the next 12 months, Beijing based multilateral funding agency Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is going to provide loans for different infrastructure projects across India. AIIB is currently evaluating Indian infrastructure projects worth US$3 billion to provide financial support. Of which, 3 projects worth US$1.2 billion are under consideration in Maharashtra itself. Some of the major projects are Delhi-Meerut RRTS, Mumbai Metro, and Chennai Peripheral Ring Road projects. The bank will fund these projects as a part of its efforts to improve transportation connectivity. India accounts for 25% of the total lending by AIIB till now, which makes India one of the largest borrowers, said D J Pandian, AIIB's Vice President. Projects worth US$19.6 billion were approved by AIIB in 24 countries before 16th July 2020. Around 17 projects worth US$4.3 billion are approved across India by AIIB since its establishment in 2016. Pandian while talking about future financing said:

Projects worth $4.5-5 billion are there in the pipeline and we will be approving another $3 billion to India in a year's time if everything goes well.

Also, he added pipeline is very robust and many infrastructure projects are at various stages of approval. Delhi-Meerut RRTS Corridor (US$500 million), Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor (US$400 million), Mumbai Metro Line-5 (US$350 million) and Mumbai Urban Transport Project (US$500 million) are the projects which are being considered to finance by AIIB. Due to the travel restrictions, not much effort was made towards environmental and social aspects in the Covid-19 pandemic time. After the completion, these projects will help reducing carbon footprints as well as improve connectivity. For reducing Covid-19 spread and its effective treatment, AIIB approved 2 major loans. In May, AIIB sanction a loan worth US$500 million for building a resilient health system to treat Covid-19 patients and for preventing its spread. This was one of the 2 projects for which AIIB approved loans. In June, the second loan worth US$750 million was sanctioned to help India's government to strengthen its battle against Covid-19 and its impacts on vulnerable sectors.