Three mega infra projects worth Rs 25,000 cr cleared

The government on Friday gave regulatory clearances to three mega infrastructure projects involving an investment of Rs 25,000 crore. These are the first among a few projects the government has shortlisted to be put on a fast track.

The projects cleared on Friday were of Hinduja National Power Corporation Ltd in Vishakhapatnam, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd, and Simhapuri Expressways Ltd in Andhra Pradesh. These had been held up because of regulatory bottlenecks.

“The government should take steps to see the clearance of projects is fast-tracked… The clearances have been given for projects that will now be implemented. It is expected clearances for the rest of the projects will be given before the next meeting,” department of financial services secretary D K Mittal told reporters after a meeting chaired by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to review the projects.

The first review meeting was taken by the finance minister on October 18, in which 12 projects worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore were discussed. At on Friday’s meeting, 12 more projects worth Rs 37,000 crore with investments in the range of Rs 1,500-5,000 crore were discussed. The government will take up more projects worth Rs 1,000-1,500 crore in the next review meeting on December 18.

“Bank sanction is already available in these projects, but there were some other issues (in getting various regulatory clearances). The issue came up before the finance minister as these are very important projects. We want to clear them because the money of our financial institutions is invested in these projects. If they don’t take off, that will give rise to non-performing assets,” Mittal said.

Mittal said the Foreign Investment Promotion Board had approved the Hinduja power project envisaging an investment of about Rs 6,000 crore, though L&T’s metro project (about Rs 16,000 crore) was still facing some legal obstacles. The highway project in Andhra Pradesh (about Rs 2,550 crore) was also held up over the environment clearance.

The government has started reviewing large projects after a meeting between Mukherjee and the industry on August 1, when industrialists expressed concerns. The finance minister is reviewing implementation of infrastructure projects valued Rs 100 crore and more.

Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan and power minister Sushilkumar Shinde also attended the review meeting.