New Delhi — India’s flood-ravaged Kerala state will seek to borrow more than 100-billion rupees ($1.4bn) to finance reconstruction work after a disaster that has claimed nearly 400 lives, its chief minister said on Tuesday. The proposed loan is part of a special package that the southern state, which estimates it has suffered damage of at least 200 billion rupees, will seek from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for rebuilding efforts, minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. Kerala will ask Modi’s government to raise the state’s borrowing ceiling to 4.5% of its GDP from 3%, which will help raise an additional 105-billion rupees from the market, Vijayan said. "Our aim is not merely a restoration of the state to pre-flood times, but the creation of a new Kerala," he told reporters. The worst floods in the state in a century claimed 383 lives, razed tens of thousands of homes, and washed away roads and bridges. About 1.3-million people are sheltering in relief camps. The federal govern...
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