Big infra push: ₹111 lakh-crore investment in the pipeline

India’s infrastructure investment goal for the next five years just got bigger with the final report of the Task Force on National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) projecting investments to the tune of ₹111 lakh-crore during financial year 2020-25.

This is higher than the ₹102 lakh-crore envisaged when the summary report was released in end December last year. The revised projection comes in the wake of additional data submitted by the Central Ministries and State Governments.

In the final report, which was submitted to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Wednesday, the task force has suggested ways and means of financing the NIP through deepening corporate bond markets, including those of municipal bonds, setting up development financial institutions for infrastructure sector, accelerating monetisation of infrastructure assets, land monetisation, etc.

Three committees

The task force has also recommended that three Committees be set up: a Committee to monitor NIP progress and eliminate delays; a Steering Committee in each infrastructure ministry level for following up implementation; and a Steering Committee in Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) for raising financial resources for the NIP.

While basic monitoring will vest with the ministry and project agency, there is a need for higher level of monitoring on reforms to be undertaken and to deal with issues of stalled projects. The basic elements of the monitoring and evaluation framework including recommended governance escalation matrix is given in Volume-I of the NIP report. The final report of NIP Task Force is in three volumes.

Of the total expected capital expenditure of ₹111 lakh crore, projects worth ₹44 lakh crore (40 per cent of NIP) are under implementation, projects worth ₹33 lakh crore (30 per cent) are at conceptual stage and projects worth ₹22 lakh crore (20 per cent) are under development. Information regarding project stage are unavailable for projects worth ₹11 lakh crore (10 per cent).

Sectors such as energy (24 per cent), roads (18 per cent), urban (17 per cent) and railways (12 per cent) amount to around 71 per cent of the projected infrastructure investments in India. The Centre (39 per cent) and States (40 per cent) are expected to have almost equal share in implementing the NIP in India, followed by the private sector (21 per cent).

The final report identifies and highlights recent infrastructure trends in India and global in all sectors of infrastructure. It also captures sector progress, deficits and challenges. In addition to update existing sectoral policies, the final report also highlights a set of reforms to propel infrastructure investments in various sectors throughout the country.