Asia Bizz: As Phase III of the Delhi Metro is set to begin, Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has signed an agreement with India on March 29, 2012. The JICA has provided a fund of Rs 7,922 crores as soft loan for the construction of the Delhi Metro.
The agency has earlier funded Phase I and II of the Metro network in Delhi; with the construction of the Phase III, it will add another 103 kms to the network.
The official donor agency of the government of Japan has signed the agreement with the Ministry of Finance in New Delhi. It was generous on the part of Japan to decide to fund the Delhi Metro when the country is still recovering from the deadly earthquake and tsunami in the country last year.
The chief representative of JICA, Shinichi Yamanaka, signed the loan agreement with Joint secretary Prabodh Saxena, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. A loan will be paid to the Delhi Metro and it would be repaid in the period of 30 years with the grace period of ten years. The loan would also carry a soft interest of 1.40 percent. A total of Rs 14,097 crores will be funded by JICA for the Phase III.
