PM push buttons for expediting infra projects [July 2012]

In an aim to give a major push to the important infrastructure sectors, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh called for a meeting to finalise the targets for infrastructure for the fiscal 2012-13.
The Government targets to spend over $ 1 trillion in the next five years. Commenting on this ambitious plan, Dr. Singh said, “The government alone cannot invest such huge amounts and therefore it is important that we involve the private sector in our efforts, through Public Private Partnerships”.
The Govt. plans to award 9,500 kms of roads for construction this year and over 4,000 kms for maintenance under the new system. In Railways, it plans to award work on the elevated rail corridor in Mumbai, two new Loco manufacturing units and the PPP stretch of the dedicated freight corridor, in addition to redeveloping 4 or 5 stations through PPP mode. In shipping we have set for ourselves the challenging task of awarding work for two new major PPP ports, the first in decades, in addition to capacity addition targets which are three times the targets for the last year.
“In Civil Aviation, work will be awarded on three new Greenfield airports in Navi Mumbai, Goa and Kannur and new international airports at Lucknow, Varanasi, Coimbatore, Trichy and Gaya” he said. “Also, two new hubs will be developed in the country making us a destination as well as a transit point. In Power, we plan to add a record 18,000 MW of capacity”.
Acknowledging that the targets were certainly ambitious and impressive, he said, “The challenge now is to work together to achieve these targets. I would urge all the Ministries to go the extra mile in implementing what we have planned. I would expect them to very expeditiously resolve any inter-ministerial differences that might arise as we move forward”.
“After achieving remarkably high growth rates over the past eight years and emerging as the second-fastest growing large economy in the world, we are now running into more turbulent weather,” the Prime Minister said.

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