In big infra push, PM sets roads, rail, power targets

THE INFRA SECTOR IS A FOCUS AREA OF THE

MODI REGIME. PROJECTS WORTH OVER `50,000 CR HAVE ALREADY BEEN CLEARED IN 2 MONTHS

NEW DELHI: With the objective of boosting growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday met the secretaries of nine economic ministries to outline a plan to put infrastructure development in top gear over the next two years.

At the meeting with the secretaries of roads and highways, civil aviation, shipping, power, telecom, railways, petroleum, coal, and industry, planning secretary Sindhushree Khullar made a presentation on targets for different sectors. She spoke of bottlenecks faced during the UPA regime and mooted the idea of a monitoring unit in the Planning Commission to remove these. She also stressed on swift, time-bound clearance of projects and easing of environmental norms to ensure projects take off, government sources said.

“The focus of the presentation was speedy development of smart cities, ports, roads, special economic zones and corridors (like DMRC). Greater infrastructure development by way of building more airports and ports, and having better connectivity through the railways was discussed,” said a source.

The infrastructure sector is a focus area for the Modi regime, and projects worth over `50,000 crore have already been cleared in the two months the government has been in power.

Construction of roads remains a top priority with the Centre setting a target of awarding projects for the construction of 8,500 km of highways this fiscal, against 9,638 km in 2013-14. However, the UPA government had managed to award projects for just 3,169 km last year.

Of the 8,500 km of highways, 3,500 km would be PPP projects and the remaining would be implemented on the EPC (engineering procurement construction) model where the government provides 100% funding.

The target for actual construction of highways in 2014-15 has been set at 6,300 km.

As many as 189 highway projects with a total cost of around `1,80,000 crore are currently stuck due to problems such as land acquisition issues, clearance delays, etc.

Since availability of power is critical for infrastructure development, issues related to power generation and transmission projects were discussed. “It was pointed out that the biggest challenge today is not power generation but transmission,” a senior government official said.

Building gas pipelines to ensure projects don’t suffer from fuel shortage also came up.

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