NEW DELHI: The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank signed a $175-million loan agreement to support construction of high-voltage transmission systems to evacuate power generated from new mega solar parks to the interstate grid, and improve reliability of the national grid system, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.
In addition to the ADB loan of $175 million, the project includes a $50-million co-finance from the Clean Technology Fund – a $5.8-billion component of the Climate Investment Funds aimed at providing developing countries resources to expand efforts in utilising low carbon technologies and transitioning to clean, renewable energy sources. The loan will be given to the Power Grid Corporation and will include subprojects in various locations in India.
Powergrid will make an equity contribution of $135 million equivalent to support the total project cost of $450 million. The $175 million loan will be from ADB’s ordinary capital resources and will have a 20-year term, an annual interest rate determined in accordance with ADB’s London interbank offered rate-based lending facility. The $50-million CTF loan
financing will come with a 40-year term.