Media reports indicate that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) asked union Finance Minister P Chidambaram to arrange a Cabinet meeting and other processes to clear loan proposal for four key projects.

Akihiko Tanaka, President of JICA is learnt to have said this to the finance minister during a recent meeting. The four projects referred to are the Mumbai Metro Line-3 project, widening of highways in Bihar to four lanes, a $137-million investment promotion programme in Tamil Nadu and the development of Indian Institute of Technology's Hyderabad campus through a $186 million loan.

Meanwhile, JICA raised concern over the tardy pace of pace of approvals for infrastructure projects in the country. The agency would only sign loan deals if approvals, such as environment clearances and most of the land acquisition, are in place.

JICA has been funding several crucial infrastructure projects in the country, including the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor project, Line-3 in Mumbai Metro's first phase.

Earlier, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe committed $747 million for the Mumbai Metro line and extended a yen loan equivalent of $3.7 billion for eight other projects.