Bank Aid Likely To Be Cleared For Krishna Project

World Bank assistance of Rs 50 crore was suspended following reports of slow rehabilitation and resettlement of people earlier living on the banks of the Krishna.

According to state officials, the World Bank is likely to release Rs 50 crore for resettlement and consider release of another Rs 40 crore after a review of the project in November.

Karnataka chief secretary B R Prabhakara said the state government had sought $320 million for the Upper Krishna project, of which only $40 million has been disbursed so far.

A Rs 300 crore public issue was floated recently to mobilise funds for the cash-strapped river project.

 

State ministers and officials, who met Wolfensohn in Bangalore yesterday, assured him of speedy rehabilitation of the displaced people.

The Bank chief was briefed about the progress of the UKP project and urged to ensure free flow of loans for its completion.

A delegation of Bangalore-based infotech (IT) industrialists, who met Wolfensohn here, said the Bank chief was impressed by the growth of the IT industry in and around Bangalore.

The industrialists, however, pointed out the lack of infrastructure and sought the banks assistance to solve the problems of poor roads, the power crisis and faulty telephone lines.

In an interactive session with industrialists from South India, Wolfensohn listened patientaly to their views for two hours.

The focus of the meeting was on how to encourage new ideas in developing business in the south in general and in Bangalore in particular.

Wolfensohn tried to familarise himself with the problems of industrialists here rather than suggest quick remedies, said Ncore Techno-logy CMD Vinay Deshpande. Infra-structure bottlenecks were the main subject of the talks, he said. Lack of low cost finance also featured during the discussions.

The Bank chief appeared keen to tackle social problems like health and the AIDS threat.

Titan Watches chief Xerxes De-sai made a brief presentation on Bangalores problems.