Nirmala Sitharaman unveils ₹102 lakh crore national infrastructure plan

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled plans to double investment on infrastructure projects to Rs 105 lakh crore or Rs 105 trillion over the next five years, up from the Rs 51 lakh crore spent by the centre and the states in the last six years.

Sitharaman, who released a report of the task force set up to draw the infrastructure blueprint, said the panel had identified projects worth Rs 102 lakh crore after 70 rounds of consultations with stakeholders over the last four months. The exercise was initiated after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of raising investments in infrastructure to Rs 100 lakh crore.

The National Infrastructure Pipeline consists of 39 per cent projects each by the Centre and the states and the balance 22 per cent by the private sector.

Here is the sector-wise breakup of the Rs. 102 lakh crore infrastructure investment planned to be made as part of National Infrastructure Pipeline, announced by FM @nsitharaman today

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“By 2025, we expect the private sector contribution to rise to 30%,” Sitharaman added. An annual global investor meet will also be held in the second half of 2020 in this context.

The projects identified by the task force are in sectors such as power, railways, urban irrigation, mobility, renewable energy, railways, urban development, irrigation, education and health.

Nearly Rs 25 lakh crore energy projects have been lined up, the minister said, adding that another Rs 20 lakh crore in road and nearly Rs 14 lakh crore railway projects have been lined up.

The proposed National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) Coordination Mechanism comprises the public and private sector for detailed planning, information dissemination and monitoring implementation of the framework.

The projects will be spread across 21 ministries and 18 states and union territories.

In addition to projects that will cost Rs 102 lakh crore, Sitharaman said the government would add another Rs 3 lakh crore worth projects, taking the total to Rs 105 lakh crore, she said.

The finance ministry had earlier said that the availability of quality infrastructure is a prerequisite to achieve broad-based and inclusive growth on a sustainable basis.