296 projects of Rs 660,000 cr. cleared by January-end: FM

With an aim to speed up the implementation of projects, the government has cleared 296 projects with an estimated project cost of Rs 660,000 crore by the end of January, 2014. Stating this in the Interim Budget speech for the financial year 2014-15, the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the Government has given a big push to infrastructure and capacity addition in infrastructure industries.

In 2012-13 and in the nine months of the current financial year, the government has added 29,350 MW of power capacity, 3,928 kms of national highways, 39,144 kms of rural roads under PMGSY, 3,343 kms of new railway track and 217.5 million tonnes of capacity per annum in the ports, he said. Besides, 19 oil and gas blocks were given out for exploration and 7 new airports are under construction. The Finance Minister added that the government has also facilitated infrastructure debt funds to provide take-out finance for infrastructure projects and ease the pressure on the banking system.

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