The Centre and 25 states along with the Asian Development Bank on Friday reviewed the progress of 55 investment projects worth $13.5 billion financed by the ADB.

The ADB primarily focuses its assistance in India on three Infrastructure sectors- energy, transport and urban infrastructure and services.

Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission and Distribution System Improvement Project, Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Program (Tranche-1), Uttarakhand Emergency Assistance Project were given the best project implementation awards.

wSameer Kumar Khare, joint secretary, multilateral institutions at the finance ministry said that the projects assisted by multilateral development banks such as ADB should demonstrate faster and better results while facilitating international best practices, new technologies and reforms.

Referring to the recently approved five-year country partnership strategy for India, ADB's South Asia, DDG, Diwesh Saran said that ADB is willing to enhance its annual sovereign lending from the present $2 billion to $3 billion, building on the increasingly robust implementation performance in the recent years, and by extending support to low income states and economic corridors.