New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi said Saturday that his government’s ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) project will be key in helping the Indian economy recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government has already identified about 7,000 projects in different sectors that will be part of the NIP, the PM added as he made his Independence Day address at the Red Fort. “The National Infrastructure Pipeline will play a crucial role in resurrecting the country’s economy from the impact of the corona outbreak,” Modi said.
“There is a need to give a new direction to the overall infrastructure development of the country. This need will be met from the National Infrastructure Pipeline project. The country is going to spend more than Rs 100 lakh crore on this,” the PM added.
The NIP was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last December with a view to bolster investment in the infrastructure sector.
The investment envisaged between fiscal years 2020 and 2025 is a mix of private and public money.
While around 18-20 per cent of the pipeline is expected to be financed through the central government budget, around 24-26 per cent is to be contributed by state coffers.
A finance ministry taskforce recommended this April that 31 per cent of the required resources be raised through debt from bond markets, banks and NBFCs (non-banking financial corporations), and around 4-10 per cent as equity from private developers, aid agencies, and internal accruals.
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‘Need to take Vajpayee’s work forward’
As he made his infrastructure push, Modi said former NDA PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee took India’s road network to the next generation when he launched the Golden Quadrilateral highway project (a network of highways connecting four metros, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai), which “people look at with pride to this day”.
“But now we need to take the work done by Vajpayee during his time forward,” the PM said.
Stressing the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to revamp the infrastructure sector, the PM said silos between different infra sectors need to be removed.
“We are going forward for a multimodal connectivity where different sectors like rail, road and ports are linked with each other. This will be the new dimension in infrastructure development,” Modi said.
The government, he added, will focus on port-led development where a four-lane road network connecting ports will be built.
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Infrastructure is one of this governments bright spots. But the give can still do much more with land and labour reforms.