Assam: Projects costing Rs 43,000 crore underway in state

Externally aided projects

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The total approved outlay of externally aided projects (EAPs) in Assam in the past three years is over Rs 60,000 crore, of which over Rs 43,000 crore are of ongoing projects and over Rs 17,000 crore are of projects in the pipeline.

According to official records, the total approved amount of 18 EAPs is Rs 43,554 crore. These projects are underway in sectors like finance, transport, water resources, roads and bridges, power, skill development, etc.

In 2024, the state government signed three loan agreements for as many EAPs with a total project cost of Rs 10,139 crore. One each of these three projects has been funded by ADB, the World Bank, and NDB (New Development Bank), Shanghai. The projects are the Climate Resilient Brahmaputra Integrated Floods and River Erosion Risk Management Programme, the Assam Resilient Rural Bridge Programme, and the Assam Bridge Project-2.

The Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India, approved three new EAPs in 2024. The three projects are the Rs 875-crore Assam Governance and Service Delivery Programme, the Rs 2,750-crore project for supporting school education in Assam, and the Rs 250-crore Assam Fishery Development and Livelihood Project. According to sources, from 2021 to 2025, the anticipated expenditure in these projects will be over Rs 12,000 crore.

Some of the EAPs currently underway in the state are the World Bank-funded Rs 770-crore Assam Inland Water Transport Project, the NDB-funded Rs 2620-crore Guwahati-North Guwahati Connecting Bridge, the JICA-funded Rs 3797-crore Assam Health System Strengthening Project, the ADB-funded Rs 1006-crore Assam Skill University at Mangaldai, etc.

Some of the projects in the pipeline are the World Bank-funded Rs 2750-crore project for supporting school education in Assam, the ADB-funded Rs 4496-crore project for the implementation of 1,000-MW solar power plants across the state, the NDB-funded Rs 882-crore Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Programme, the ADB-funded Rs 796-crore Sustainable Wetland and Integrated Fisheries Transformation Project, the ADB-funded Rs 1250-crore Assam Urban Sector Development Project, the World Bank-funded Rs 3875-crore Assam Disaster Resilient Hill Area Road Development Project, etc.

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