CRF expansion unlikely to affect road sector allocations:ICRA

The Central Road Fund's (CRF) expansion is unlikely to affect allocations to the road sector, rating agency ICRA said today.

The recent amendments to the CRF Act, 2000 makes it more flexible and allocations would now depend on priority of the infrastructure projects, ICRA said in a statement.

However, given the high fund requirements for the ambitious new road development programme, the surplus for other sectors is expected to remain minimal, it said.

With the remaining portion of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) getting subsumed into the new road-development programme (83,000 km including Bharatmala- Phase-I) and a significant portion of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) set to be concluded by 2019, the government intends to deploy the CRF in other infrastructure sub-sectors.
 

"Starting with national waterways in June 2017, the scope of deployment of the CRF has been significantly expanded in the Finance Bill, 2018, by adding other infrastructure sub- sectors. So, the CRF was renamed as the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF)," the statement said.

Shubham Jain, Vice-President & Sector Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA said while the intent of the scope expansion is positive, the deployable surplus in the newly added infrastructure sub-sectors could be paltry.