Government nod for Rs 1,000 crore HUDCO loan

HYDERABAD: The works on the Godavari Drinking Water Project Phase-I are likely to start after the state government gave green signal to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board to borrow a loan from HUDCO for Rs 1,000 crore.The Municipal Administration and Urban Development department accorded permission for issuing necessary orders on Monday.The state government in 2008 had given administrative sanction for taking up the scheme for drawing 172 MGD water to meet the drinking water requirements of Hyderabad at a cost of `3,375 crore.But the project was not cleared by the Centre as the allocation of funds under JNNURM to the state government was exhausted.Further, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation also could not provide funds.Therefore, the project was taken up with the initial budgetary support of state government and expenditure of `1,228.55 crore has been incurred so far.In August this year, the managing director of HMWS&SB requested the state government for sanction of HUDCO loan to complete the project in time.Meanwhile, HUDCO communicated their sanction of term loan of `1,000 crore for the GDWS Phase-I and the state government on Monday accorded sanction to raise non-recourse loan of `1,000 crore from HUDCO for the project.