Mumbai: Maharastra government has Borrowed an interest-free loan of Rs 500 crore from the Saibaba Temple Trust of Shirdi for to fund the pending works of the Nilwande irrigation project which aims to meet the drinking water needs of most tehsils in Ahmednagar district.

After the Devendra Fadnavis government approached the trust to ask for a loan for the irrigation project, its chairperson BJP leader Suresh Haware took the decision of granting it.

It is the first time that such a huge loan been given to a state-run corporation without interest also without any fixed timeframe for repayment.

At a meeting presided over by CM Fadnavis on February 1, the loan proposal was approved and the order to release funds in two installments was issued on Saturday.

The work on the project had been pending for long. The temple trust will release Rs 500 crore while total project cost of Rs 1,200 crore. The water resources department has made a budgetary provision of Rs 300 crore in the current year, while it has been proposed to make a provision of Rs 400 crore in next year's budget.