Kerala to Raise Rs 10,000 Crore from NRIs for Highway Projects

The Left Front Kerala government is banking on support from Non-resident Keralites (NRK) for building two new highways in the state. The initiative aims to raise Rs 10,000 crore from the community through a chit fund scheme called “Pravasi chitti” to finance the highways extending to nearly 1,900 km, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in Thiruvananthapuram on Oct. 12.

The scheme, to be run by the Kerala State Financial Services Enterprises (KSFE), a wholly-owned non-banking company of the state government, would involve NRKs making a monthly remittance that will be invested automatically in the NRI bonds of Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) in the name of KSFE.
The investments will have a government guarantee and security of the KSFE, ensuring no additional risk for the investor.

“We are adopting a two-pronged strategy to empower the returnees through financial support for their ventures here and also to raise funds from the NRKs for developing two highways — 1,267 km-long hill highway and 630 km-long coastal highway by generating Rs 10,000 crore through NRK bonds,” Pinarayi said, adding that the target is to get it subscribed by at least one lakh NRKs in the first year.

According to data from state level bankers’ committee, the state ranks on top in deposits from the non-resident Indians (NRI), with a sum of around Rs1 trillion.

The government is planning to organize a two-day meet in January to address the problems faced by the diaspora and to get their support for some of its key initiatives. It will host a first-of-its-kind Loka Kerala Sabha — a high-level summit of all MPs, legislators from the state and representatives of over 200 registered Malayalee associations spread across the globe — to look at the issues of faced by the NRK community.

The meet, to be held in Thiruvananthapuram from Jan. 12, will be organised by NORKA-ROOTS, the nodal agency of the government under its Non-Resident Keralites’ Affairs Department.

“The meet assumes significance in the wake of large scale reverse migration of NRKs following a general slowdown in the global economy and tightening labor laws and rules in the Gulf Corporation Council countries,” K. Varadarajan, the executive vice chairman of NORKA ROOTS, said.
— (With IANS inputs)