The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India have signed a $65.5 million loan agreement at Bengaluru to continue interventions and to check coastal erosion on the western coast in Karnataka.
The loan is the second tranche of a $250 million financing facility under the Sustainable Coastal Protection and Management Investment Program.
The financing will be used to address immediate coastal protection needs and strengthen Karnataka’s Public Works, Ports, and Inland Water Transport Department.
Karnataka’s coast supports the state’s major economic sectors, which include fisheries, agriculture, tourism, ports and other major transport and communication sectors.
Coastal erosion in the state, where the project is focused, poses a high risk to human wellbeing, economic development, and ecological integrity through loss of land, infrastructure, and business opportunities.
Under increasing threat from climate change impacts, coastal protection and management has evolved as a major challenge to development. Effective and sustainable management of the shoreline is thus vital to sustainable economic and social development of the coastal regions in the state, ADB said in their release.
Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions), Department of Economic Affairs at India’s Ministry of Finance, signed the loan agreement for the Government of India, and Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, signed for ADB. A separate project agreement was signed by M. Lakshminarayana, Additional Chief Secretary on behalf of the Government of Karnataka.