Infrastructure Development gets allocation of Rs.1,73,552 crore

The Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget speech in Parliament today has announced a provision of Rs.1,73,552 crore for upgrading infrastructure in both rural and urban area. This accounts for over 46% of the total plan allocations for infrastructure development in the country.

Emphasising on the need for accelerated development of high quality physical infrastructure such as roads, ports, airports and railways, which are essential to sustaining economic growth, the Minister announced increase in the allocation for road transport by over 13%, from Rs.17,520 crore to Rs.19,894 crore. This, he said was required to push the pace of implementation especially in respect of projects being executed through Public Private Partnerships (PPP).

In this budget Rs.16,752 crore has been provided for Railways - to modernise and expand the Railway network. This is about Rs.950 crore more than last year which also had seen a substantial increase in the budgetary support for Railways.

To compliment the dedicated freight corridor, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project has been taken up for integrated regional development. Preparatory activities have been completed for creation of six industrial investment nodes with eco-friendly worldclass infrastructure.

Disbursements by the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL), established by the Government to provide long-term financial assistance to infrastructure projects, are expected to touch Rs.9,000 crore by the end of March 2010 and reach around Rs.20,000 crore by March 2011. IIFCL has also been authorised to refinance bank landing to infrastructure projects. It has refinanced Rs.3,000 crore during the current year and is expected to more than double that amount in 2010-11. The take-out financing scheme announced in the last budget is expected to initially provide finance for about Rs.25,000 crore in the next 3 years.

Source : Equity Bulls

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