Infra sector needs Rs 41 lakh crore investment

The infrastructure sector needs a whopping Rs 41 lakh crore investment in the 12th Plan period, the Economic Survey said on Friday, quoting a preliminary assessment made by the Planning Commission.

"The Planning Commission has carried out a preliminary assessment of the investment in infrastructure during the 12th Plan. The projected investment requirement would be of the order of Rs 40,999,240 crore (about $1,025 billion)," the Survey tabled in the Parliament on Friday said.

Out of the proposed investment, it is projected that at least 50 per cent would have to be come from private sector against about 36 per cent anticipated during the 11th Plan.

"The public sector investment would have to increase from Rs 13,11,293 crore in the 11th Plan to about Rs 20,49,620 crore," the Survey said, adding this would call for some innovative ideas and new models of financing.

"Challenging domestic and foreign financial savings of this scale into infrastructure requires a judicious mix of policy interventions which balances the growth and stability objectives," it said.

The Survey pointed out a slew of non-financing problems to avoid time and cost overruns.

These include problems of tendering of unviable projects, bad quality of engineering and planning at the Detailed Project Report stage, lack of standardised and sub-optimal contracts, land acquisition delays, slow approval processes and weak performance of management in nodal agencies and PSUs among others.

It also sought for urgent action in addressing problems of inadequate availability of skilled and semi-skilled manpower.

"There is urgent need to streamline land acquisition and environment clearance for infrastructure projects...A national forest land bank, with clear paperwork and titles, could significantly reduce the approval time for forest clearances," the Survey said.

It said there is also a need to reassess the existing criteria and priorities used for allocation of funds to different sectors, for example, taking into account the growing need for peaking power rather than the base load capacity in the power sector.