CII charts plan to boost infra projects

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has proposed a 12-point agenda to boost infrastructure projects in the country. These recommendations, which were released by the industry chamber on Thursday, suggested a separate ‘infrastructure budget’ be presented instead of only the railway budget.

Some other key recommendations include setting up of a separate agency to facilitate and monitor infrastructure projects on the lines of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), adoption of 20 infrastructure projects of national importance and commitment to deliver them within the specified budget and time, and setting up of 20 domestic economic zones, said JP Nayak, chairman, CII Suminfra 2009. The two-day summit on fast tracking infrastructure development through public-private partnership was organised by the CII here.

CII also suggested independent regulatory authorities for various infrastructure activities and a new land bank corporations,  PPP in rural infrastructure projects such as irrigation, cold storage and roads, dissemination of statistics on gross capital formation in infrastructure every quarter, energising infrastructure PSUs, creating mass transit rapid system in 20 top cities across the country and sectoral consensus-based templates for PPP bid process management.

In his address at the summit, Nayak said India should spend nine per cent of the GDP on the infrastructure projects, which would help country see sustained growth. China is spending 11 per cent and other developing countries are spending eight per cent of the total GDP on the infrastructure projects, he pointed out.

According to Nayak, every Re 1 spent on infrastructure would give back Rs 1.8 to country’s GDP.