New Delhi, Feb 24 (UNI) The Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a 375-million-dollar loans and grants to develop 800-km Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor, which is the first phase of a planned 2,500–kilometer long East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC). The Corridor is expected to spur development on eastern coast in line with the government’s ‘Make in India’ policy to stimulate manufacturing and Act East policy to integrate the Indian economy with Asia’s dynamic global production networks.“ADB is supporting an industrial corridor development approach that involves creation of efficient transport and reliable water and power supplies in the industrial clusters along with a skilled workforce to be backed by industry-friendly policies that improve ease of doing business for integration of local economy with global production networks,” said LB Sondjaja, Deputy Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission who signed the loan agreement on behalf of ADB. “We estimate that by 2025, annual industrial output along the corridor will increase fourfold to 64 billion dollars from about 16 billion dollars in 2015 if investment opportunities are maximized over the next few years,” he added. “The project is an important milestone in the process of developing the corridor and realizing the objectives of Make in India. We sincerely hope that the project will complement the ongoing efforts of the Government of Andhra Pradesh to enhance industrial growth and create high-quality jobs,” said Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions), in the Ministry of Finance, who signed the loan agreement for Government of India. Along with the ADB loans, agreement was also signed for a five million dollars grant from the multi-donor Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund that is managed by ADB to build climate change resilient infrastructure. The Government will provide extra funding of 215 million dollars to the 846 million dollars project. The tranche one loan will have a 25-year term including a grace period of five years, a 20-year straight line repayment method at an annual interest rate determined in accordance with ADB’s LIBOR-based lending facility. UNI ASH SNU 1414