Letter to BS: NIP is a big step towards ambitious dream of $5 trn economy

This refers to the editorial "Push for infrastructure"(January 2). The National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) is a big step towards the ambitious dream of $5 trillion economy in next five years. This massive Rs 102 trillion worth of projects are spread across 18 states and Union Territories and from energy to road and from urban development to railways, each will get its share of the pie from this huge cake. Needless to say various sectors of economy would be benefited from this move. As we have seen in the past, announcing big-ticket projects is fairly common but it's the implementation where we falter big time. Hence, it is a welcome step that the government aims to be pragmatic enough to drop laggard projects out of this pipeline as it progresses. Now action on task force’s recommendation would be keenly watched as government cannot afford to be lax and need to learn fast from the failures of past big infrastructure projects.

 
Two things defining the fate of NIP will be close monitoring and financing of these big-ticket projects and for later bond market would be the key, as traditional lenders may not be too eager to jump into this huge opportunity. Last but not the least, the Bharatiya Janata Party has lost a few critical states in the recent past and coordination between states and the Centre can directly impact the progress of these projects. Thus it’s better if political differences are kept aside.
 
 Bal Govind,  Noida

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