Manila: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 180 million dollars loan to finance widening and upgrading a toll road in India linking the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, the Bank announced.

A private concessionaire will run the 180-km tollway, the first time India is using the private sector to operate and maintain a publicly funded tollway, ADB senior investment and programmes officer Thevakumar Kandiah said.

He said the concessionaire could be Indian or an international-local joint venture.

Details of the concession have yet to be worked out but a five-year rollover agreement is a possibility, Kandiah added.

The loan will come from the Bank's ordinary capital resources. It is repayable in 25 years, including a grace period of five years, with the interest to be determined according to ADB's pool-based variable lending rate system for US dollar loans, the Bank said.

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