Govt, World Bank ink loan pacts worth $412.4 million for cyclone mitigation project

New Delhi: The government on Tuesday inked loan agreements worth $412.4 million with the World Bank for the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project. Signing two separate pacts, the government and the World Bank inked for a loan agreement of USD 104 million for additional financing under National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project-I. [caption id=“attachment_1517819” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. AFP.[/caption] While, another loan agreement worth $308.40 million was signed for National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project-II. The financing agreements were signed by Department of Economic Affairs Joint Secretary Raj Kumar and World Bank Program Leader and Acting Country Director in India John Blomquist. “The objective of additional financing under NCRMP-I is to reduce the vulnerability of coastal communities to cyclone and other hydro meteorological hazards in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha,” said a release from Finance Ministry. It would also provide improved access to emergency shelter and evacuation against wind storms, flooding and storm surge in high risk areas currently not covered by the original project (NCRMP-I), the release added. It further said, “The objective of NCRMP-II is to reduce vulnerability to cyclone and other hydro-meteorological hazards of coastal communities in the states of Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal; and increase the capacity of the state entities to effectively plan for and respond to disasters.” The project will also finance technical assistance for strengthening of multi-hazard risk management at the national level and improving the quality of available information on multi-hazard risks for decision making across the country, the release said. PTI