RAWALPINDI, June 22: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a multi-tranche $900 million loan to Punjab for improving water resources and increasing agricultural productivity in the province.

A signing ceremony in this connection was held on Friday at the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) by Secretary EAD Akram Malik, Secretary Irrigation and Power Arif Nadeem and ADB’s country director Peter Fedon.

Punjab’s irrigated agriculture accounts for over a quarter of its gross domestic product and employs half of its labour force using more than 90 per cent of the water resources.

“The programme takes a holistic and integrated approach to improve sector performances supported by infrastructure investment and combined with institutional reform,” Thomas Panella, ADB’s senior water resources management specialist, said.

The first two loans would finance the Lower Bari Doab Canal Improvement Project (LBDC) that would also improve the Balloki Barrage which supplies irrigation water to 700,000 hectares.

The Punjab Irrigation and Power Department, responsible for the management of surface irrigation system covering 8.4 million hectares in the province, would be the executing agency for the programme.

The ADB would extend the financing through a multi-tranche facility over 10 years that could be converted into separate loans.