The loan is meant for the first phase (Ludhiana-Mughal Sarai) of a dedicated high-speed freight corridor that will eventually link Calcutta and Delhi.
But those familiar with the World Bank’s operations suggested that the approval could be more of a message to cash-starved Bengal than mere funding for an infrastructure project. “Lenders are always quick to announce loans for borrowers who could get them more business,” a finance ministry official said in Delhi.
The loan for the railway project was negotiated while Mamata helmed Rail Bhavan and the decision to go to the World Bank over other possible lenders was taken after considerable deliberations.
Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra declined to comment whether the state would approach the bank for loans for its infrastructure projects. “We will have to study the issue,” he said.
World Bank sources said the Bengal government, which has run up a debt of over Rs 2 lakh crore, had not yet approached the global lender for any project funding but added that they “would be open to ideas”.
The bank, which usually offers loans at an interest rate of around 1 per cent, is scouting for projects that can be showcased as successful.
It has given loans to Bihar as well as Orissa but a chance to come to the rescue of Bengal, where the Left once used to berate the lending agency, will be a public relations feather in the bank’s cap.
The Rs 24,000-crore eastern freight corridor is expected to stretch 1,806km from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni on the outskirts of Calcutta. The corridor will be extended in future up to a proposed deep-sea port.
The key objective is to serve coal and steel traffic. Armed with spurs linking mineral hubs, the corridor is expected to allow goods trains to run between industrial and mineral hubs at an average speed of 100km per hour.