Aizawl, Dec 10 (IANS): The NABARD has so far sanctioned a Rs 1,744.51 crore to Mizoram for 677 projects of critical rural infrastructure and Rs 1,070.81 crores has been disbursed so far, officials said here on Friday.

A Mizoram government official said that under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), the NABARD, during the past few years, has sanctioned the loans for critical rural infrastructure like roads, bridges, drinking water, and health infrastructure.

Under the Warehousing Infrastructure Fund, NABARD has supported Mizoram government with a loan amount of Rs 112.76 crores in building 111 warehouses with aggregate capacity of 42,174 MT for storing agriculture and horticulture produce.

Through its different grant schemes, the bank has provided Rs 35 crore during the past three years to support various organisations, banks and local bodies in areas like tribal development, setting up rural markets, spring shed development, supporting innovative agriculture extension programmes, developing cooperative societies, supporting GI products, skill development programmes, handloom producer organisation, financial literacy camps.

NABARD Chairman G.R. Chinatala, during a meeting with the Mizoram government officials including Additional Chief Secretary J.C.Ramthanga on Friday, said that although NABARD has been supporting various developmental efforts, a lot is still left to be done to uplift the socio-economic infrastructure of the state.