The Centre and the World Bank on Thursday signed a $ 500 million loan agreement to provide additional financing for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), rural roads project, which will build 7,000 km of climate resilient roads, out of which 3,500 km will be constructed using green technologies.

The World Bank has supported PMGSY since its inception in 2004. So far it has invested over $1.8 billion in loans and credits mostly in the economically weaker and hill states across North India – Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

It has built and improved about 35,000 km of rural roads and benefited about eight million people with access to all-weather roads.

The agreement for the project was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, joint secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Centre and Junaid Ahmad, country director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank.