The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs 3,245 crores under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for irrigation and rural drinking water supply projects in Gujarat for 2021-22. A senior NABARD official told the media that for the state of Gujarat, it is the highest ever funding for loan assistance to projects. The approved amount under RIDF was 8.5% more for 2021-22 against the Rs 2,989 crore approved in 2020-21. According to the NABARD data, the Gujarat government has acquired cumulative loan assistance of Rs 35,225 crore for 63,172 projects sanctioned under RIDF from 1995-96. Officials said that out of the total loan assistance, Rs 13,409 crore, which is 38% of the amount that has been allotted during the last five years. Two packages of Saurashtra-Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojana (SAUNI) Link 3 worth Rs 336 crore are the irrigation projects that obtained sanctions for 2021-22. To divert one million acre-feet of floodwaters from Narmada to the Saurashtra region SAUNI Yojana was launched. 28 reservoirs of Rajkot, DevBhoomi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Morbi, and Surendranagar district will be linked to 66 km-long pipelines extending from Dholidhaja dam in Surendranagar to Rajkot's Venu-1 dam under the SAUNI Link 3 project. A Panam High-Level Canal-based Lift Irrigation Scheme of Rs 114 crore, a lift irrigation project of Rs 194 crore in the tribal district of Dahod, a Vaghrech Recharge Project of Rs 231 crore, and a 273 crore Panam Reservoir Based Lift Irrigation Scheme are the other irrigation projects that will obtain a sanction. The irrigation facilities will grow by 75,112 hectares via these irrigation projects. In eight districts of Gujarat, Rs 1,006 crores have been approved for delivering functional household tap connections to 85.76 lakh people under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) under the rural drinking water supply project. Drinking water supply projects of Budhel to Borda bulk pipeline worth Rs 293 crore and Rs 794 crore Dhanki to Navda bulk pipeline, which will help 68.4 lakh people in rural regions, have also been sanctioned during 2021-22. Image Source Also read: NABARD approves five road projects for Sirmaur district