India’s infrastructure investment is expected to see an over 15 per cent CAGR over the next few years, with increased focus on capex driven sectors such as roads, railways and civil aviation, Union Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said.

The Minister quoting a Morgan Stanley report said, India’s infrastructure investment, which currently stands at 5.3 per cent of GDP, is expected to rise to 6.5 per cent by 2029, indicating a CAGR of 15.3 per cent.

“A historic budget of ₹111 trillion has been allocated for infrastructure projects — more than the total GDP of several developing nations,” he said during a media interaction on Friday.

According to him, the Budget allocation for the roads sector has increased significantly – almost nine-fold – to ₹2.7 lakh crore in 2024-25, from ₹31,130 crore in 2013-14. The national highway network in India has grown to 146,126 km in July 2024, up 60 per cent from 91,287 km in March 2014.

“The construction of better highways has reduced freight truck transit times by approximately 20 per cent. This has resulted in potential savings in annual logistics costs of ₹2.4 lakh crore at ₹4.8 lakh crore. These efforts strengthen India’s target to reduce logistics costs to 9 per cent of GDP by 2025,” Scindia said.

Similarly, Indian Railways has been allocated ₹2.62 lakh crore for the development of railways, an eight-fold increase over the previous UPA Budget, indicating greater focus on infra-development.

“The Indian Railways has become one of the greenest railway systems in the world, with 97 per cent of the broad-gauge network electrified,” he said, adding that high-speed rail projects like the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train and the target of 4,500 Vande Bharat trains by 2047 is also on the cards.

The speed of infra development has also picked up. In the roads sector, the average construction pace is around 37.8 km/ day – up from 12 km/ day (up three times) in 2014-15; while the target is to achieve a pace of 60 km/ day. For the Railways, the average track laying has risen nearly four times over the last 10 years to 14.54 km/ day in 2023-24, as against 4 km/ day previously.

“Around 31,180 km of railway track has been laid in 10 years, which is the size of a Germany,” Scindia maintained,

Connecting the North-East

Infrastructure development benefits have also been extended to the North-Eastern region.

For instance, in the aviation sector, airports have nearly doubled to 17, while the Railway construction budget for the North-East has increased by 384 per cent, reaching around ₹9,970 crore, with nearly 2,000 km of railway track constructed.

Under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for the North-East, ₹63,542 crore has been allocated for the development of 5,468 km of roads. “And nearly 67 per cent has been completed,” Scindia said.

Additionally, 800 road projects worth ₹3,00,000 crore has been initiated.

Published on December 13, 2024