State govt on lookout for Rs 50,000-cr funds

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is holding talks with a reputed Mumbai-based financial institution to mop up a whopping Rs 50,000 crore for completing pending and new irrigation projects in the next three years.

During their Mumbai visit on Sunday, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy held a ‘secret’ meeting with the representatives of the financial institution. The government is seeking at least Rs 50,000 crore funds from the institution for irrigation projects.The Chief Minister and Uttam met with the officials of the financial institution and explained the requirement of funds to complete the projects.

It is learnt that the funding agency expressed readiness to support the Telangana government in the completion of the projects. The RBI regulations in funding the projects by the domestic and international financial agencies were crucial for clearances, officials said that the state government was already facing fund crunch to provide funding to the welfare schemes and development programmes.

The government is planning to take up the Pranahita- Chevella Lift Irrigation project by constructing Tummidihetti barrage soon. The project will need at least Rs 30,000 crore. In the wake of fund crunch, works at several pending projects are also not moving fast and the state is not in a position to borrow more funds from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Therefore, raising funds from financial agencies will be essential to speed up pending and new irrigation projects.

Sources said the state Finance Department will hold another round of meeting with the financial institution and finalize plans to borrow funds. The proposal to get funds by floating a corporation is already under consideration. Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) norms, state’s financial situation and revenue generation avenues will be explained to the financial institution’s representatives in the next meeting.