Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has provided for higher allocation in the roads sector, indicating higher public spending. To start with, allocation in the road sector, including Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), will be ₹97,000 crore during 2016-17, said Jaitley.

Extra resources The Budget expenditure statement for the Central Plan shows that for the highways sector, the total outlay for 2016-17 is ₹103,286 crore, of which the budget support is ₹44,007 crore, with the remaining ₹59,279 crore expected to come from intra and extra budgetary resources (IEBR). This looks like a tough target to meet, given that this is almost double of the IEBR for 2015-16 at the revised estimates level for current fiscal.

Budgetary support for the highways sector for 2015-16 was ₹42,694 crore at the revised estimates stage, marginally higher than the budget estimates. But the IEBR for the highways sector, which includes toll revenues, bonds and private investments, has been slashed to ₹28,000 crore at the revised estimates level for 2015-16, from the budgeted ₹41,422 crore. Budgetary support for the rural development department has been increased to ₹7,615 crore for the next fiscal, up from ₹6,161 crore.

India’s highest ever number of kilometres of new highways were awarded in 2015, with a target to approve nearly 10,000 km of National Highways in 2016-17.

The Budget has allocated of ₹55,000 crore for roads. An additional ₹15,000 crore will be raised by NHAI through bonds, part of which will be through Inland Waterways Authority of India. Given the huge push for infrastructure, sector experts anticipate that the Government will leverage off-budget financing to fund planned growth in the sector and a revival in public-private-partnership projects. Jaitley also indicated opening up of the passenger transportation sector, an issue being taken up by a Group of State Government Ministers. “Abolition of the permit-raj will be our medium-term goal. The Government will enact necessary amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act and open up the road transport sector in the passenger segment. An enabling eco-system will be provided for the States, which will have the choice of adopting the new legal framework,” he said.

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Passenger transport As a result, entrepreneurs will be able to operate buses on various routes, subject to certain efficiency and safety norms. The major benefits of this ‘game-changing’ initiative will be provision of more efficient public transport facilities, greater public convenience, new investment in this moribund sector, creation of new jobs, growth of start-up entrepreneurs and other multiplier effects.

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