The World Bank is open to doubling its assistance to India to four billion dollars, with the main chunk of loans being aimed at infrastructure development, an official said Thursday.
"We are ready to give two billion dollars for India's infrastructure development," Washington-based World Bank executive director C.M Vasudev said on the sidelines of a conference in the Indian capital.
"The total assistance could be in the range of three to four billion dollars in 2004-2005," he added.
In the financial year ended March 2004, the bank's assistance to India was about two billion dollars.
Vasudev, a former economic affairs secretary in India's finance ministry, said China and India had pressed the multilateral lending agency to earmark more funds for infrastructure development.
"As a result of the initiative the World Bank has put in place an infrastructure action plan and is actively considering a number of projects in India," said the senior bank official.
"We have adopted a policy shift and are looking at infrastructure projects rather than focusing on social sectors alone."
India has already asked the bank for help with its 20 billion project to improve roads and highways in the next five to six years.
The ambitious projects include the 580 billion rupee (12 billion dollar) National Highway Development Project and a new 400 billion rupee venture to connect all major cities by four-lane highways.
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