AIIB grants $356.67mn for Chennai Metro Rail phase II

The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a $356.67 million loan for the expansion of the Chennai Metro rail system, taking the bank’s financing for various projects in India to $6.7 billion, making the country its largest beneficiary.

Launched in 2016, the AIIB is a multilateral development bank that aims to support building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. China is the largest shareholder of the bank with 26.06 per cent voting rights. India is the second-largest shareholder with 7.5 per cent followed by Russia at 5.93 per cent and Germany at 4.5 per cent.

The Chennai project involves the construction of a new corridor in Chennai’s metro network as part of its Metro Rail Phase 2, AIIB Vice President for Investment Operations D J Pandian said on Thursday.

With this loan, the bank has so far approved 28 projects in India amounting a total of USD 6.7 billion, said Pandian, who oversees all sovereign and non-sovereign lending for the AIIB in South Asia, the Pacific Islands and South-East Asia.

After China, India is the second-largest shareholder of the bank and is also its largest beneficiary in terms of getting approvals for many projects, he said.The Chennai Metro project is “aligned with AIIB’s mandate to support high-quality and sustainable infrastructure”, said Pandian, who previously served as the Chief Secretary of Gujarat. He recently visited Chennai and reviewed the progress of the metro project. He also called on Chief Minister M K Stalin and Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.