Chennai metro gets $357-mn loan from AIIB

Beijing: The Beijing-based, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has approved a $356.67 million loan for the expansion of the Chennai metro rail system, taking the bank's financing for various projects in India to $6.7 billion, making the country its largest beneficiary. Launched in 2016, the AIIB is a multilateral development bank that aims to support building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. China is the largest shareholder of the bank with 26.06 per cent voting rights. India is the second-largest shareholder with 7.5 per cent followed by Russia at 5.93 per cent and Germany at 4.5 per cent.

The Chennai project involves the construction of a new corridor in Chennai's metro network as part of its Metro Rail Phase-2, AIIB Vice President for Investment Operations D J Pandian said on Thursday.With this loan, the bank has so far approved 28 projects in India amounting a total of $6.7 billion, said Pandian, who oversees all sovereign and non-sovereign lending for the AIIB in South Asia, the Pacific Islands and South-East Asia.

The energy and transport sectors have received the highest amount of financing from the AIIB, he said. After China, India is the second-largest shareholder of the bank and is also its largest beneficiary in terms of getting approvals for many projects, he said. Besides funding various infra projects, the bank also granted $1.75 billion to India for Covid-19 relief budget support, which included help for social protection and assistance to MSMEs, Pandian said.