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Move to kick-start infrastructure projects Jolted into action following the country's GDP growth plunging to a nine-year low of 5.3 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2011-12, the government on Wednesday decided to set in motion a host of measures to kick-start key infrastructure development projects and thereby provide a catalyst to revert the economy to a higher growth trajectory.At a meeting held by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to finalise the infrastructure sector targets for the current fiscal, investment allocations were sought to be almost doubled for a number of key segments such as ports and shipping, roads, airports, and railways. The quantum jump in investment targets in these sectors, with the aid of private sector participation, is expected to provide a massive boost to manufacturing activity in allied sectors in a scenario when the economy is faced with turbulent times.With Ministers and Secretaries of key infrastructure Ministries — Power, Railways, Roads, Shipping, Civil Aviation and Coal — participating in the deliberations, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia made a presentation to point out the detailed process through which these targets were finalised and the high level of ambition they represent.

In particular, the ambitious projects and investment targets pertain to ports, roads and airports. In the ports segment, the target for this fiscal comprising a total of 42 projects valued at Rs. 14,500 crore is three times what was achieved last fiscal. Of these, two projects are for brand new major ports in the east coast — Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal — with a total investment of Rs. 20,500 crore. “The total capacity which will be awarded this year will be 360 MTPA with an investment of Rs. 35,000 crore,” a statement said.

In roads, a total length to be awarded in 2012-13 will be 9,500 km, marking an increase of 18.7 per cent over last year and an increase in investment by 73.6 per cent. Of these, a total of 4,360 km of roads will be awarded for maintenance under the OMT (Operate, Maintain, Transfer) system for the first time.

As for civil aviation, work on the Itanagar airport is to be started by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the total investment on AAI projects will be Rs. 2,100 crore. This apart, three new greenfield projects will be awarded during the fiscal and these airports are to be located at Navi Mumbai, Goa and Kannur. Alongside, new international airports will be declared in three or four of the locations this year — Lucknow, Varanasi, Coimbatore, Trichy and Gaya.

“An airline hub policy would be finalised and Hubs would be operationalised in Delhi and Chennai in FY13. By end-July 2012, additional PPP projects would be finalised for 10-12 existing airports and for 10-12 greenfield airports,” the statement said.

In his remarks, while expressing satisfaction over the detailed exercise undertaken to finalise targets for key infrastructure sectors for 2012-13, the Prime Minister said: “We are all aware of the need to give a major push to these important sectors and today's exercise is a part of our efforts in this direction.”