Japan commits $1.55 billion ODA loan for several projects in India

New Delhi: Japan has committed a 232.21-billion-yen (about $1.55 billion) Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan for nine projects across various sectors in India such as road connectivity, climate change response, and horticulture, India’s finance ministry said on Tuesday.

The loan will fund infrastructure projects in North East India, including the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge (34.54 billion yen) and the Phulbari-Goeragre section of NH 127B (15.56 billion yen), apart from the construction of the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road (49.85 billion yen) and the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project (40 billion yen), ministry added.

The loan will also fund projects to promote startups and innovation in Telangana (23.7 billion yen), sustainable horticulture in Haryana (16.21 billion yen), and climate change response and ecosystem services enhancement in Rajasthan (26.13 billion yen). Some of it will be used to establish a medical college hospital at Nagaland Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Kohima (10 billion yen), and improve urban water supply in Uttarakhand (16.21 billion yen).

While the road connectivity projects aim to improve infrastructure in India’s North East, the Chennai peripheral ring road project aims to alleviate traffic congestion and strengthen connections to southern parts of Tamil Nadu, the ministry said.

The project in Nagaland will help develop tertiary-level medical service delivery, while the fifth tranche for the freight corridor project will help with the construction of a dedicated freight railway system and modernisation of the intermodal logistics system, enabling an increase in freight traffic, it added.

The loans will be disbursed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and most of the projects are expected to be completed between 2026 and 2034.

"India and Japan have had a long and fruitful history of bilateral development cooperation since 1958. Economic partnership, a key pillar of India-Japan relations, has steadily progressed in the last few years," the finance ministry said.

"Exchange of notes for these important projects will further strengthen the strategic and global partnership between India and Japan," it added.