The Centre has approved over 9,000 applications and sanctioned Rs 6,540 crore so far, for the development of agri-infra projects, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Friday in Rajya Sabha.

Tomar, in his written reply to the Rajya Sabha, said: "As on date, 16,026 applications for an amount of Rs 10,627 crore have been received on the AIF portal. Out of these, 9,019 applications for Rs 6,540 crore have been sanctioned."

This amount has been sanctioned under the Agriculture Infra Fund (AIF), under which financing facility is provided for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and support through credit guarantee facility.

AIF with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore will be disbursed through loan by 2025-26.