NIP to play critical role in revitalizing economy post pandemic: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today highlighted that the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) will play a critical role in revitalizing the economy post-pandemic. She said NIP is not only just central government budgetary expenditure on Infrastructure but also includes infra spending by states and the private sector.

The Ministry of Finance in a tweet said, "Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman reviewed #UnionBudget action points for infrastructure roadmap, including National Infrastructure Pipeline implementation with CEO, NITI Aayog, and Secretaries of 22 Infrastructure Ministries/Departments."

Chairing a virtual meeting with CEO, NITI Aayog and Secretaries of 22 Infrastructure Ministries and Departments, she discussed post-budget action points for infrastructure roadmap ahead including NIP implementation.

It was discussed when countries across the globe have been dealing with the challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic, the NIP has shown substantial progress.

The NIP was launched with 6,835 projects; the project pipeline has now been expanded to nearly 7,600 projects. Around 216 projects worth Rs. 74,067 crore under central government infrastructure ministries have been completed till the third quarter of the current Financial Year. Around 678 projects worth Rs. 6 lakh crore have progressed from the lower stage to the upper stage of project formulation and implementation.

At the meeting it was unanimously agreed that ministries need to work very hard in order to ensure achieving targets of the NIP.

CEO, NITI Aayog gave a presentation on asset monetization and highlighted various models for monetization of core infrastructure assets and also spoke about finalizing targets for asset monetization. This was the third review meeting by the Finance Minister with Ministries about the importance of (NIP) and infrastructure sector to ensure a faster post covid-19 recovery of the economy.