Jal Jeevan Mission: Cabinet nod to Kerala Water Authority for availing ₹4,000 crore more as loan from NABARD

The State Cabinet has cleared a Kerala Water Authority (KWA) proposal for availing ₹4,000 crore more as loan from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for completing rural water supply works under the Centrally-assisted Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).

The Cabinet also decided to award JJM works worth ₹153.37 crore on the condition that the State would meet their expense if the Central share was not issued on time. They include four works in Thiruvananthapuram district, three in Ernakulam district and one each in Pathanamthitta, Malappuram and Idukki districts.

The clearance was given at the Cabinet meeting held on Saturday (March 14, 2026).

This amount constitutes the second instalment of a ₹9,000-crore loan assistance that is being secured under the NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance (NIDA) scheme for the mission. The KWA had already availed a loan of ₹5,000 crore under it. The national-level JJM has the goal of providing piped water supply to every rural household in India. In Kerala, sanction was accorded for projects amounting to ₹44,714.78 crore. The cost is being shared at a 50:50 ratio by the Union and the State governments.

The Kerala government, faced with a fund crunch, had agreed to a KWA proposal to avail a loan as the State had to pump in ₹12,532.02 crore for completing the balance works under the mission. The Centre had extended the deadline to 2028, a step that had brought relief to Kerala where the works had been delayed.

In the matter of project implementation, Kerala continues to languish at the bottom of the list with implementation at 54.89%, the lowest in the country.