About 80 rail overbridges have been cleared after the Railways put in place an online approval system, Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said at an Assocham event.
Recently, the Railway Ministry had devised an online system that enabled Highway Ministry’s agencies to apply and get clearances to build rail overbridges.
Earlier, approval from Railways to build overbridges was a key reason for delay in implementation of road projects.
“Now, on the contrary, the Railways tell us that your design (the proposed design by a Highways) needs to be improved,” said Gadkari.
Calling for an easy finance regime, Gadkari said infrastructure development is impossible with finance costs hovering at 13 per cent. No where in the world does this happen, he said, adding that not taking decisions on projects cost hundreds of crore. Government officials do not have the word ‘time’ in their dictionary, said Gadkari, adding that ₹300-400 crore is at stake for a day’s delay in decision-making.
Infra fundingIn the future, another problem for the infrastructure sector will be bank funding.
SB Nayar, CMD, India Infrastructure Finance Corporation Ltd, said once the Basel-3 norms are implemented it will become difficult for banks to fund infrastructure projectsBasel-3 norms are a globally agreed set of capital rules for banks. Once implemented, banks will step back from project financing.
As infrastructure projects are usually not rated till they are completed, banks will have to apportion funds from their equity to fund those projects, Nayar pointed out. He said this while stressing the need to develop long-term funding sources for infrastructure projects beyond banks.
Nayar said banks in India are too small to fund large infrastructure projects. It requires 25-30 banks to fund a project, he said, adding that any change in project scope requires approval from all lenders. He added that banks are also reaching their sectoral caps faster.