The country is eyeing World Bank assistance to part-finance its ambitious Bharat Nirman project, which has been conceived to improve basic infrastructure in rural areas. "We have mentioned that India could easily absorb something of the order of a billion dollar in the Bharat Nirman programme," the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, told reporters after a meeting with the visiting World Bank President, Mr Paul D. Wolfowitz, in New Delhi.