New Development Bank’s board approves three projects worth $825 mln in Russia, India

The board of directors of BRICS’ New Development Bank (NDB) approved three infrastructure and sustainable development projects in India and Russia with loans aggregating $825 mln at its 16th meeting in Shanghai, NDB said in a statement.

"The board approved a non-sovereign loan of $300 mln to Sibur Holding for environmentally sustainable infrastructure development related to ZapSibNefteKhim project," the statement said. NDB will provide financing "including reimbursement of expenses for construction of utilities including water treatment facilities, transport and logistics infrastructure," the financial organization noted.

The NDB will also provide two loans ($350 mln and $175 mln) to the government of the Republic of India for rehabilitating major district roads with a total length of about 2,000 km to improve connectivity of the rural interior with the national and state highway networks and to realize the full benefits of upgrading the state highways and major districts roads, through constructing and upgrading about 350 bridges in the State of Madhya Pradesh.

The agreement on establishing BRICS New Development Bank was reached on July 15, 2014 in Brazil’s Fortaleza. The Shanghai-headquartered bank has been established to finance infrastructure projects and projects for sustainable development of BRICS and other developing countries.