New Delhi, April 24: The Indian government has signed a $210 million loan agreement with the World Bank to improve the rural roads in Madhya Pradesh, an official statement said on Tuesday.
"The project (Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project) will cover 10,510 km stretch of rural roads in Madhya Pradesh that fall under the Chief Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana (CMGSY) program," said the Finance Ministry in a statement.
The deal, signed between the Central government, Madhya Pradesh government and the World Bank, will improve the durability, resilience and safety of the gravel surfaced rural roads and enhance the capacity of the state to manage its rural roads network, it said.
Of the total roads, 10,000 km will be upgraded from existing gravel to bituminous surface roads, while 510 km of new roads will be built to the same bituminous surface standard, it added.
"Government of India is making all efforts to ensure that communities in the most remote areas across the country are connected through a road network. All weather road connectivity is crucial for economic growth, especially in the rural areas," said Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.
Gravel surfaced roads are more prone to washouts than paved roads during flood seasons. This project will undertake resilience measures such as surface sealing of roads, embankment pitching, and balancing culverts to prevent damages caused by extreme flood events.
World Bank India Acting Country Director Hisham Abdo said: "This project will leverage resources to support innovations in road construction, improve road safety, and reduce carbon footprint in the transport sector by mainstreaming climate resilient technology in road design and construction."
Recognizing that road safety is a critical issue, the project will also strengthen road safety management systems with the objective of reducing fatalities and serious injuries from road accidents, the statement said.
"The project will focus on improving road accident data collection and analysis at central and state levels through implementation of the Road Accident Database Management System (RADMS)," it said.
Further, the state will pilot a comprehensive Road Safety Programme in districts with most fatal and serious injuries recorded in the recent past, it added.
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Sensex rallies for 3rd day to regain 77,000-mark; Nifty climbs 108.65 points
Mumbai, Apr 16 (PTI): Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed higher for the third straight day on Wednesday following buying in banking stocks and fresh foreign fund inflows as retail inflation slipping to near six-year lows raised hopes of further rate cuts.
Defying a weak global market trend, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 309.40 points or 0.40 per cent to settle at a two-week high of 77,044.29 in a volatile session. After a weak start, the index moved between gains and losses during the session. It hit a high of 77,110.23 and a low of 76,543.77, gyrating 566.46 points.
The NSE Nifty rallied 108.65 points or 0.47 per cent to 23,437.20.
Positive macro data and forecast of normal monsoon boosted investor sentiment, analysts said.
IndusInd Bank rose the most by 7.12 per cent amonf Sensex shares. The bank stated that external agency PwC has assessed a negative impact of Rs 1,979 crore on the bank's networth due to accounting lapses in the derivatives portfolio.
Axis Bank jumped 4.26 per cent while Adani Ports rose by 1.81 per cent. Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India and ITC were among the gainers.
Maruti was the biggest loser, falling by 1.51 per cent. Infosys, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC and Bajaj Finance were among the laggards.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers after days of selling as they bought equities worth Rs 6,065.78 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
"Globally, markets are undergoing fresh consolidation as tariff tensions intensify... Amidst global weakness, the Indian market exhibited a mild positive sentiment in anticipation that the trade fight between the US & China will not harm but benefit India, and March's CPI inflation which is at a nearly 6-year low is indicative of further rate cuts in the near future," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.
Domestically, the Q4 FY25 earnings season has started on a weak note. Overall expectations remain subdued, suggesting potential profit booking at higher levels, Nair added.
The BSE smallcap gauge climbed 0.91 per cent and midcap index rallied 0.62 per cent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, oil & gas climbed the most by 1.78 per cent, followed by bankex (1.45 per cent), energy (1.25 per cent), telecommunication (1.08 per cent), financial services (1.07 per cent) and services (0.73 per cent).
IT, auto, capital goods and BSE Focused IT were the laggards.
As many as 2,636 stocks advanced while 1,309 declined and 133 remained unchanged on the BSE.
"Participants responded positively to favourable cues, including the update on a normal monsoon, further easing of retail inflation, and, importantly, the absence of any negative surprises from global markets. Notably, the sustained strength in banking and financial stocks, along with rotational buying in other sectoral heavyweights, played a significant role in driving the momentum," Ajit Mishra – SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd said.
In the borader market, shares of Gensol Engineering tumbled 5 per cent to hit the lower circuit limit after Sebi barred the firm and its promoters -- Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi -- from securities markets till further orders in a fund diversion and governance lapses case.
In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi index, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng settled lower. Shanghai SSE Composite index ended higher. European markets were quoting lower. US markets ended in the negative territory on Tuesday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.91 per cent to USD 65.22 a barrel.
Rallying for the second straight session on Tuesday, the Sensex jumped 1,577.63 points or 2.10 per cent to settle at 76,734.89. The Nifty surged 500 points or 2.19 per cent to 23,328.55.
