KIIFB approves 55 new projects worth Rs 2,000 crore

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The KIIFB governing body and executive meetings held here on Tuesday approved 55 new projects which together have an estimate of Rs 2,002.72 crore. Most of the new projects are railway overbridges, roads and bridges.
The governing body decided to borrow Rs 1,100 crore from International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of World Bank. The amount will be utilized to implement eco-friendly infrastructure projects.The IFC has reviewed KIIFB’s proposal and decided to approve the assistance. The board concluded that loan from IFC will also help to avail loan from other major international agencies like JICA and ADB. IFC will also render technical assistance for public private partnership projects financed by KIIFB.
KIIFB board meeting sanctioned Rs 1,030.80 crore for land acquisition for Kochi-Bengaluru industrial corridor project. Earlier, KIIFB had approved Rs 12,710 crore for land acquisition, mostly in Palakkad district, for the project.
Taluk hospital, Peravur in Kannur, will get Rs 22.16 crore for infrastructure improvement while taluk hospital, Malayinkeezhu, will get Rs 15.25 crore for construction of new buildings. A proposal to grant Rs 20.27 crore for construction and repair of buildings of University College, Thiruvananthapuram, was also approved by the KIIFB executive. MG University will be given Rs 50.28 crore for various projects.
Independent members from outside the state joined Tuesday’s meeting online. Sushil Khanna (Kolkata), J N Gupta (Mumbai), C P Chandrasekhar and Sudipto Mandal (Delhi) joined the meeting along with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, finance minister T M Thomas Isaac and other members. Till date, KIIFB has approved 730 projects under various departments, together estimated at Rs 56,394 crore.
After the meeting, the finance minister said that there was discussion on downgrading of KIIFB by Standard & Poor’s. Recently, they had revised the rating of KIIFB from BB to BB Negative. “But, the agency doesn’t have any negative comments on fiscal management of KIIFB and support from the government. The downgrading happened because of the downgrading of the state government. It is a fact that the financial situation of state government has worsened after Covid-19 outbreak. All state governments are facing a similar crisis. However, their rating outlook for KIIFB is ‘stable’ and that means there wouldn’t be further downgrades this year,” said Isaac.