₹1,460 crore borrowed from the SBIThe swanky, smooth main roads in the GHMC area come with a heavy cost. Spectre of huge debt burden looms over not only the creation of road infrastructure under the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP), but also the regular maintenance of major roads by private agencies under the Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme. GHMC has borrowed a sum of ₹1460 crore from the State Bank of India (SBI) just for maintenance of the city roads for five years under CRMP. In order to repay the loan, GHMC has proposed to impose ‘Special Development Charges’ the details of which are not available in the agreement copy. State government, however, stood as guarantor only towards the second term loan for CRMP to an extent of ₹1,500 crore.

Source: The Hindu July 03, 2021 18:56 UTC