PM sets target for major infrastructure projects for 2013-14

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday set targets for development of key infrastructure projects, including airports, ports, roads and power generation in the current financial year.

Specific targets were set for various sectors at a high-level meeting attended by ministers of finance, railways, road transport and highways, shipping, civil aviation, power and coal among others.

The targets included setting up of two new international airports at Bhubaneswar and Imphal and 50 new low-cost small airports in different parts of the country.

For coal sector, the prime minister has set a target of rolling out public private partnership (PPP) projects of at least Rs.1 lakh crore in the next six months.

"The Prime Minister highlighted the need to ramp up investment in infrastructure to revive investor sentiment. For this purpose, a target of rolling out PPP projects of at least Rs 1 lakh crores in the next six months was set," according to a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office after the meeting.

"A steering group is being formed to monitor the award and implementation of projects from among the following on priority," it said.

For Railways, it said, "an inter-ministerial group of railways, finance and planning will be formed with the task of coming up with a creative financing-cum-implementation mechanism in two months for clearing the large backlog of sanctioned projects of over Rs.200,000 crore in a prioritised and time-bound manner."

The prime minister has set targets to set up two new PPP ports at Sagar (West Bengal) and Durgarajapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).

"The slowdown in the award of road projects should get reversed in view of the large number of relaxations that have already been provided to PPP road projects," the PMO statement said.

"Expressways will get focused attention and the Planning Commission will work with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways to suggest an implementation mechanism for expressways," it said.