Shirdi Trust to loan Rs 500 cr to Maharashtra for building dam canal

The Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust in Shirdi will provide the “interest-free” loan worth Rs 500 crore to the Maharashtra government for constructing a canal network for a dam.

The Nilwande Dam is located on Pravara River and is expected to benefit 182 villages in Sangamner, Akole, Rahata, Rahuri and Kopargaon talukas in Ahmednagar district and Sinnar in Nashik.

A senior official of the Trust said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed with the state government’s Godawari-Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation (GMIDC) in this regard.

“The trust will give Rs 500 crore for the project but will not charge any interest on it,” he said while refusing to divulge the details of tenure of repayment.

The official said the temple trust provides money for social work regularly but the amount it had allocated for the Nilwande Dam was “huge” and a “rare thing“.

A state Water Resources department official said the Nilwande Dam had begun storing water but the right and left bank canals needed to be built for it to be used for irrigation and drinking water purposes.

The Nilwande Dam, this June, received Rs 2,232 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sanjivani Yojana.

HBL