The World Bank has approved a Rs2,100-crore ($455m) loan to the Indian state of Punjab to finance the upgrade of over 950km of roads.

Work covers roads in three regions in the state, namely Malwa in the south, Majha in the north and Doaba in the central region.

Of the total, 595km of roads will be upgraded in Bathinda, Mansa and Sangrur districts, 208km in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts and 155km roads in Anandpur Sahib and Hoshiarpur.

The upgrade forms the second phase of Punjab’ Road Sector Project and will be carried out under Output & Performance Based Road Contracting system.