The State Projects Department (SPD) provides loans from the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) with the objective of supporting public sector capital investment in rural infrastructure through providing low cost fund support to State Govts. and State-Owned Corporations. Over the years, RIDF has become an important source of public capital formation in the rural infrastructure space.

I. Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF)

A major policy initiative for rural infrastructure development has been the setting up of RIDF in NABARD in 1995 for financing rural infrastructure projects. RIDF was set up to fund infrastructure projects in States, which are incomplete due to lack of financial resources. Due to inadequacy of critical infrastructure, banks were unable to channelise their lending to agriculture as per priority sector guidelines.

The Government of India, therefore, announced setting up of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) in the budget of 1995-96, to be operationalised by NABARD towards financing of, at that time, the ongoing rural infrastructure projects in the irrigation sector. Subsequently, RIDF was made available for new rural infrastructure projects and its ambit was broad based to cover almost all important aspects of rural infrastructure.

Resources to RIDF are contributed out of the shortfall in lending to priority sectors by Commercial Banks as stipulated by RBI.

a. Core functions of the Department

The corpus of a particular Tranche of RIDF is decided by Government of India every year. Annual Corpus under RIDF is allocated among all States on the basis of prescribed norms comprising of

• Geographical Area of the State
• Inverse of Composite Infrastructure Development Index
• Share in National Rural Population and Rural poverty rate
• Inverse of Credit/Deposit Ratio and inverse of per capita PS credit
• Performance under RIDF (Average disbursements and utilisation of drawables)
• Average sanctions for Agriculture (including Irrigation) and Drinking Water projects

The amount of contribution by banks to a particular Tranche of RIDF is communicated by RBI based on the level of priority sector shortfall. The concerned banks are called upon by NABARD as and when funds are required for disbursement.

NABARD provides financial assistance to the State Governments for projects covering 39 activities broadly classified under three heads, i.e. Agriculture & Related Sector, Social Sector, and Rural Connectivity.

Eligible projects are prioritised and submitted by the State Governments through their Finance Departments/Nodal Departments to the respective Regional Offices (ROs) of NABARD. The projects are appraised by NABARD’s Regional Offices and forwarded to NABARD Head Office where they are placed before Sanctioning Committee of the Board or Internal Sanctioning Committee (ISC) for consideration for sanction.

Rural Infrastructure Promotion Fund (RIPF) has been created with an initial corpus of Rs 25 crore and operationalised from September 1, 2011 with an objective to promote capacity building among stakeholders as also for supporting innovative/experimental/promotional infrastructure especially in rural sectors. The activities/projects supported under RIPF are in the nature of experimental prototype projects, which are likely to have positive impact on promotion of sustainable infrastructure development in rural and agricultural sectors.

b. Broad achievements under RIDF

RIDF Tranche I was placed with NABARD during 1995-96 with an allocation of Rs. 2,000 crore. The annual corpus has now reached to Rs. 40,001.98 crores under RIDF XXVIII (2022-23).

Cumulative Sanctions & Disbursements as on December 31, 2022

From RIDF I to XXVIII, NABARD has sanctioned total 7,57,603 projects involving loan assistance of Rs 4,55,160 crore to State Governments as on December 31, 2022 (including for warehousing projects).

Of this, an amount of Rs. 3,52,420 crore (77%) has already been disbursed. In addition, Rs 18,500 crore was sanctioned and disbursed for rural roads under Bharat Nirman. This translates to total sanctions of Rs 4,73,660 crore and total disbursements of Rs 3,70,920 crore (78%).

c. Sector-wise Share of Cumulative Sanctions

Sector-wise cumulative RIDF loans sanctioned as on December 31, 2022 (Rs. 4,55,160 crore), accounted for:

• Agriculture, irrigation and allied sectors (43%)
• Social sector (21%)
• Rural roads and bridges (36%)

The estimated cumulative economic and social benefits under RIDF as on 31 December 2022 were as under:

d. Benefits of RIDF Projects:

NABARD's support for creation of Rural Infrastructure through RIDF has resulted in considerable benefits such as:

• Commitment of funds under RIDF sanctioned projects has enabled State Governments to take up the implementation more expeditiously
• Financing incomplete projects has resulted in unlocking of investments already made by the State Governments, thus, realising the full benefits of the projects
• Creation of additional irrigation potential, generation of non-recurring employment and creation of jobs has contributed to the economic prosperity in the rural areas
• Monitoring of the projects has resulted in timely implementation of majority of the projects and has reduced the time and cost overrun Completion of projects through RIDF assistance from NABARD has helped in growth of core sectors in rural areas by spurring the demand for credit from Banks.

e. On-going projects and schemes:

State-wise, Tranche-wise details of closed/on-going projects/ schemes and broad sector-wise details are given in Annexure I and II.

• Annexure I
• Annexure II

(i) Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF)

• Long Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF) was announced in the Union Budget 2016–17 for fast tracking completion of 99 identified Medium and Major Irrigation projects, as identified by MoJS, GoI. The projects were spread across 18 States. Subsequently, 04 more projects, viz., Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, North Koel project in Bihar & Jharkhand, Relining of Sirhind & Rajasthan Feeders and Shahpur Kandi Dam in Punjab were included under LTIF.
• Under LTIF, NABARD has provided loan towards Central share as well as State share. Loan towards Central share has been extended to NWDA, a SPV of GoI whereas the State share has been extended to participating State Governments.
• From 2016-17 to 2020-21, loan was extended towards both Central as well as State share. From 2021-22 onwards, the LTIF funding arrangement is in operation towards State share only. The Central share is to be met from budgetary resources of GoI.

Cumulative loan sanctioned and released as at the end of 31 December 2022 was ? 85, 127.38 crore and ? 56,379.18 crore respectively. The details of State-wise sanction and release of funds as on 31 December 2022 are given as under:

State wise cumulative loan sanctioned and released as on 31 December 2022.

@ Central share-Rs.46,495.93 crore & State share – Rs. 38,631.45 crore

# Central share- Rs.26,500.60 crore & State share – Rs.29,878.58 crore

• Loan towards State share has been availed by 13 States, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Goa, so far.
• Tenor of loan provided under LTIF is 15 years.
• Out of the 99 projects, Accelerated Area Benefited Programme (AIBP) component of 50 projects and Command Area Development & Water Management (CAD&WM) component of 14 project have been completed as on 31 March 2022.

(ii) Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF)

• MIF with an initial corpus of Rs.5000 crore was operationalized in NABARD in 2019-20 to facilitate State Govts. efforts in mobilizing additional resources for expanding coverage under micro irrigation and incentivizing its adoption beyond provisions of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana-Per Drop More Crop. The nodal Ministry under the fund is the MoA&FW, GoI.
• Under the funding arrangement, loans are extended to participating State Governments with 3% Interest Subvention from GoI.
• As announced in Union Budget 2021-22, augmentation of the corpus under MIF by another Rs.5000 crore is under consideration.
• The MIF funding arrangement for the initial corpus is in operation upto 31 March 2023. As on 31 December 2022, 14 projects have been sanctioned to 08 States (Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal) under MIF.

• State wise cumulative loan sanctioned and released as on 31 December 2022

(iii) Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana - Grameen (PMAY-G)

• PMAY-G aims at providing a pucca house with basic amenities, to the rural households. The nodal Ministry under the scheme is MoRD, GoI.
• Under the scheme, NABARD has extended loan from 2017-18 to 2020-21 to National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA), SPV of GoI towards part funding of Central share.
• The cumulative loan sanctioned and released under PMAY-G stood at Rs.61,975.00 crore and Rs.48,819.03 crore, respectively. This has facilitated construction of 1.77 crore houses as on 31 March 2022 (Source-MoRD, GoI website).

(iv) Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G)

• Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) was launched by GoI to achieve universal sanitation coverage in rural areas. The nodal Ministry for SBM-G is the Ministry of Jal Shakti, GoI.
• Under the scheme, NABARD has extended loan from 2018-19 to 2019-20 towards part funding of Central Share.
• The cumulative sanction and disbursement made under SBM-G stood at Rs. 15,000 crore and Rs. 12,298.20 crore, respectively.
• During 2018-19 and 2019-20, 3.29 crore household toilets (2.23 crore in 2018-19 and 1.06 crore during 2019-20) were constructed (Source –MoJS, GoI).

Contact Information

Dr. Rajiv Siwach
Chief General Manager
8th Floor, 'D' Wing
C-24, 'G' Block
Bandra-Kurla Complex
Bandra (East), Mumbai 400 051
Tel: (91) 022-26530068, (91) 022-26539238

Information under RTI – Section 4(1)(b)