Government steering groups on infrastructure to meet on Friday

The Steering Group formed by the Prime Minister to accelerate infrastructure investments worth three lakh crore rupees will hold its first meeting on Friday.

The meeting to be chaired by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister will be attended by the Secretaries of economic and key infrastructure ministries along with Planning Commission.

The meeting will discuss preparation and award of various projects with an estimated cost of one lakh crore rupees.

These include Mumbai Elevated Rail Corridor, two Locomotive projects, Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, two Airports, Power and Transmission Projects.

To clear backlog of sanctioned projects in the Railways, the Prime Minister has approved the constitution of an Inter Ministerial Group consisting of Chairman, Railway Board, Finance Secretary and Secretary, Planning Commission.

The group will come up with a creative financing-cum-implementation mechanism for enhancing investment and for clearing backlog of projects of an estimated Rs 2 lakh crore in a prioritized manner.