India, World Bank ink $100mn loan agreement for solar parks

India and the World Bank on Monday signed a $100-million loan and grant agreement to help the country increase its solar power generation capacity, an official statement said.

The loan for "Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project" would go towards financing solar parks in the country, a Finance Ministry release said here.

The funding has two components: a $75-million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which has a five-year grace period and a maturity of 19 years, and a $23-million loan from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) with a 10-year grace period, and a maturity of 40 years.

The second component of $2 million is an interest-free CTF grant.

"The project will help establish large-scale solar parks and support the government's plan to install 100 gigawatt (GW) of solar power out of a total renewable energy target of 175GW by 2022," the statement said.

According to a World Bank statement, the first two solar parks are in Rewa and Mandsaur districts of Madhya Pradesh with targeted installed capacities of 750MW and 250MW.

Other states where potential solar parks could be supported under this project are in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Haryana.

--IANS

bc/nir