Centre unveils Rs 102L-crore infra plan

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said India plans to invest about Rs 102 lakh crore in the infrastructure sector in the next five years to achieve the GDP target of $5 trillion by 2024-25.

Sitharaman said the government, keeping in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push for Rs 100 lakh crore infra investment over the next 5 years, has laid out a detailed plan.

The Finance minister said Rs 2.5 lakh crore port and airport projects, Rs 3.2 lakh crore digital infra projects, Rs 16 lakh crore irrigation, rural, agriculture and food processing projects have been identified.

Over Rs 16 lakh crore infra projects, including mobility projects have also been added to the pipeline.

The Finance ministry informed that the private sector will share 22-25 per cent of NIP investments. The Centre and states will bear the rest of the cost equally.

Nearly Rs 20 lakh crore road and nearly Rs 14 lakh crore railway projects have also been lined up under NIP. Nearly ₹25 lakh crore energy projects are lined up under the national infrastructure pipeline.

Sitharaman said that with the help of this massive inflow of investment, the government has kept its promise made by the Prime Minister during his Independence Day speech.

"We are looking at various suggestions given by various working groups under the task force," said the Finance Minister.

"Rs 102 lakh crore National Infrastructure Projects (NIP) will help make India a $5 trillion economy by 2025. Infrastructure is a focus area for the government.

This is the first time that we will have an infra pipeline. The task force has submitted its report in just 4 months," she added.

She said that while projects worth Rs 102 lakh crore have already been identified, another Rs 3 lakh crore worth of projects will be firmed up in the next few weeks. The government, Sitharaman said, held over 70 meetings with various stakeholders in the last four months.

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

Earlier in September, the government had set up a task force headed by Economic Affairs Secretary to prepare a road map for the "national infrastructure pipeline" from 2019-20 to 2024-25 under the ₹100 lakh crore infra plan.

The task force was planning a list 10 major infrastructure projects including greenfield and brownfield projects costing above ₹100 crore each. "We will get projects worth Rs 105 lakh crore in infrastructure," Sitharaman said.