Thursday, July 18, 2013: The Asian Development Bank is totally open to the option of providing a second loan to the state power projects for grid upgrades. This will help the plants to generate and sell more amount of electricity. The Manila based bank had approved a $100 million loan for the western Gujarat projects in 2011 and now it is the nation’s largest solar park.
The loan had highly helped in building transmission lines and importing equipment necessary for the project. This has encouraged other private developers to complete their plants quickly as they wouldn’t have to spend extra on individual grid connectivity, which in turn helped the government meet the annual growth target of 9 per cent. The program improved the High Voltage / Direct Current (HDVC) technology for the country.
ADB is now planning for a similar investment in the neighboring state of Rajasthan. Yongping Zhai, the director of energy division at the South Asia department of the bank confirmed the news on a telephonic conversation from Manila. The investment will also be co-financed by the Clean Technology Fund, contributing $5.2 billion and is further backed by five development banks. The total loan might get approved by the end of the year 2013.
