ADB provides $100 million loan assistance to Nepal

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide $100 million to Nepal for the Rural Connectivity Improvement Project. Finance secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari and country director of Nepal Resident Mission of ADB signed the agreement and exchanged it at the Finance Ministry  today on the behalf of their respective institutions.
Adhikari after signing the agreement expressed appreciation to the ADB for this assistance and its continued support in the socio-economic development of Nepal.
The project will upgrade 388-km of rural roads to all-weather standards, serving the agriculture sector and bring access to 7.5 million people in 16 districts, according to a press release issued by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Nepal.
The project, in line with the goal of the government's Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS), was signed in 2015 to encourage commercial agriculture, increase productivity, create new rural jobs and increase prosperity.
The project aims at increasing transport efficiency on project area. "It shall improve the rural road conditions between the selected rural communities, agriculture production areas and enhance capacity of rural infrastructure agency and road users in project areas," the ADB press note further read.
Likewsie, ADB has also agreed to provide $1 million to restructure the Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agricultural Roads into a state-of-the-art rural road agency. The project is expected to be completed by January 31, 2023.
The ADB, conceived in the early 1960s as a financial institution, assists its members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants and equity investments to promote social and economic development.