India is hoping a new China-backed multilateral lender will fund coal-based energy projects, an official said, putting it in direct conflict with the World Bank, whose chief has maintained that it would stick to its restrictions on such lending.
Â
A senior Indian official told Reuters the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), sponsored by China, is expected to allow funding of coal-fired power plants that the World Bank has almost totally blocked.
Â
"When you have 1.3 billion people starved of electricity access and the rest of the world has created a carbon space, at this point denying funding is denying access to cheap energy," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Â
India sits on the world's fifth-largest reserves of coal, and the commodity generates three-fifths of India's power supply. But the demand for electricity far outstrips supply, and according to data compiled by the World Resources Institute in 2012, proposals have been made to set up 455 new coal-fired plants in the country.
Â
Research house Integrated Research and Action for Development said earlier this year India needs to invest $250 billion in the power sector by 2017.
 
