The Free Press Journal

RLYS GET ` 1.1 L CR PUSH

- SANJAY JOG

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget proposal has brought the infrastruc­ture developmen­t at the centre stage with higher allocation. This is in addition to the National Infrastruc­ture Pipeline of Rs111 lakh crore. She has proposed Rs20,000 crore to set up and capitalise a Developmen­t Financial Institutio­n (DFI) – to act as a provider, enabler and catalyst for infrastruc­ture financing. FM said Rs5 lakh crore lending portfolio will be created under the proposed DFI in 3 years and Debt Financing by Foreign Portfolio Investors to be enabled by amending InvITs’ and REITs’ legislatio­ns.

Sitharaman has announced an outlay of Rs1,18,101 lakh crore for Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of which Rs. 1,08,230 crore is for capital and Rs 1,10,055 crore for Railways of which Rs1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditur­e. She also announced the setting up of dedicated freight corridors across the country.

FM spelt out the government's plans to equip trains plying on the high-density networks and routes with an

—NIRMALA SITHARAMAN, Union Finance Minister indigenous­ly developed automatic train protection system that will prevent train collision due to human error. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said his Ministry’s allocation has been increased from Rs 91,000 crore to Rs1,18,101 crore and predicted it to be a huge boost for infrastruc­ture. He also announced the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways' plans to build 22 green highways. Further, Gadkari informed that constructi­on of highways up to 8500 km had already been awarded and revealed that the various projects including the important Mumbai-Kanyakumar­i corridor would be kick-started by the government in the coming days. As far as urban infrastruc­ture is concerned, FM the share of public transport in urban areas will be raised by expansion of metro

Indian Railways has prepared a National Rail Plan for India 2030. The plan is to create a future-ready railways system by 2030 — bringing down the logistic cost for the industry is at the core of a strategy to enable Make in India.

rail network and augmentati­on of city bus service. She announced Rs 18,000 crore for a new scheme, to augment public bus transport includ

ing innovative PPP models to run more than 20,000 buses.

MetroLite’ and ‘MetroNeo’ technologi­es will be introduced in various states to

provide metro rail systems at much lesser cost with similar experience in Tier-2 cities and peripheral areas of Tier-1 cities.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India