PMO to review key infra projects today

Following fixation of specific targets for the infrastructure sectors by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 6, his office (PMO) is preparing specific plans for key projects, especially in the railways and shipping sectors.

Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterji is holding a meeting tomorrow to review key infra sector projects, to be attended by finance ministry officials and representatives from the ministries concerned. A senior finance ministry official said the majority of the projects to be reviewed were from the railways, followed by the shipping sector.

The PM had approved specific targets for various infra sectors at a meeting last month and a monitoring and problem resolution mechanism had been made part of the process.

In the case of railways, a key concern area, along with the regular operational and investment targets, specific targets for public-private partnership projects in 2012-13 have been fixed. This includes the dedicated freight corridor for the Sonnagar-Dankuni stretch and Mumbai’s elevated rail corridor, with a total investment of Rs 20,000 crore. The proposal and approach for a High Speed Corridor (Bullet Train) from Mumbai to Ahmedabad has to also be finalised in the current financial year.

For ports, the target for 2012-13 consist of 42 projects worth Rs 14,500 crore. Two projects for new major ports have to be taken up, on the Andhra coast and Bengal.