HYDERABAD: The World Bank has sanctioned a fresh tranche of loan to Andhra Pradesh and showered praise on the Congress Government for "building on the economic and social reforms initiated by the previous Government."

It approved the Andhra Pradesh Economic Reform Credit/Loan, the third in the series of structural adjustment loans (SAL) renamed development policy loan to the tune of US $ 200 million (about Rs. 900 crores) to the State. The loan was approved as the new Government that took over in May, 2004, added emphasis on agriculture and irrigation along with continuing key reform initiatives such as fiscal discipline, improving the investment climate, governance reforms and restructuring of public enterprises.

According to the Project Information Document (PID) released by the bank, the loan comes after two structural adjustment loans approved earlier.

No DFID grant

The present loan does not entail any grant from the DFID or other agencies. Its objective is to support implementation of the Government's fiscal, administrative and service delivery reform programme.

"There are six projects in the pipeline for a cumulative net financial commitment of about US $ 1 billion," the bank said.

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