With the intention to fund the road projects, highways regulator the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) announced that it has decided to raise Rs 3,000 crore during the existing fiscal through tax-free bonds.

To get a loan of about Rs 2,000 crore to fund road projects, the highways regulator is also making discussions with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Didar Singh, NHAI Member (Finance), said, “We have fixed a target of raising Rs 3,000 crore through tax-free bonds in the financial year 2009-10. The bonds will hit the market very soon.”

Karbi Anglong (Assam), Apr 11: A Karbi militant and a civilian were killed in an encounter between the militants and the Army near Dakomoka of Karbi Anglong District in Assam on Saturday morning.

According to official sources, the gunbattle started when a unit of Army personnel tried to corner the group of militants in Karbi Anglong district.

In a separate incident during the same time in adjacent North Cachar Hills District, a separate group of militants belonging to the Dimasa ethnic group fired indiscriminately at a goods train coming from Lumding to Badarpur.

New Delhi, Apr. 11: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is scheduled to visit Kerala on a daylong election campaign today.

“After addressing an election rally in Kochi, Dr. Singh will arrive here to address a public meeting at 3 pm,” DCC President K C Abu told reporters in Kozhikode.

Union ministers A K Antony and Vayalar Ravi besides Opposition Leader in the state assembly Oommen Chandy and KPCC President Ramesh Chennithala would also be present, he added.

On Friday, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi made a brief electioneering tour of the state.

Hyderabad, Apr. 11: Determined to prove that the Congress has a clean image, party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has promised to set up an inquiry into the BJP allegations that the party had salted away lakhs and crores of rupees into Swiss banks.

“You elect us. We will order an inquiry,” Rahul Gandhi said at an election rally in Qutbullahpur, Andhra Pradesh.

Gandhi claimed that the BJP would forget their promises of unlocking the money from Swiss bank accounts because they know there was no such money anywhere.

New Delhi, Apr. 11: In the run-up to this year’s general elections, India has many challenges confronting it, but all of them can be tackled with a balanced approach, feels Cabinet Secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar.

In an interview to gfiles, a magazine focusing on the workings inside the government, Chandrasekhar, a 1977 Kerala cadre Indian Administrative Service officer, says that among the many challenges that the government has to deal with are reducing the impact of the global recession and ensuring that the rural and urban sectors of the country evolve and develop at the same pace.