FM says focus on Infra for economic development, Rs 103 lakh cr infra projs launched under NIP

To augment India's infrastructure and create jobs, the government has launched Rs 103 lakh crore infra projects besides providing about Rs 1.70 lakh crore for transport infrastructure and accelerating highways construction, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.

Presenting the Union Budget 2020-21 in Parliament, Sitharaman said focus is on infrastructure for economic development and 6,500 projects across sectors under National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) envisions ease of living for citizens.

"In his Independence Day speech 2019, Prime Minister had highlighted that Rs 100 lakh crore would be invested on infrastructure over the next 5 years. As a follow-up measure, I had launched the NIP on December 31, 2019 of Rs 103 lakh crore. It consists of more than 6500 projects across sectors and are classified as per their size and stage of development," she said.

About Rs 22,000 crore has already been provided, as support to Infrastructure Pipeline, she added.

Terming the budget growth-oriented, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said it has given a massive boost to investment in infrastructure, which in turn would help revive industrial production and generate employment opportunities, crating more that 2 crore jobs.

These new projects will include housing, safe drinking water, access to clean and affordable energy, health-care, educational institutes, railway stations, airports, bus terminals, metro and railway transportation, logistics and warehousing, irrigation projects, etc.

The National Infrastructure Pipeline envisions improving the ease of living for each individual citizen in the country, she said and added it will bring in generic and sectoral reforms in development, operation and maintenance of these infrastructure projects.

Also she said: "I propose to provide about Rs 1.70 lakh crore for transport Infrastructure in 2020-21."