New Delhi, September 12
The government today said it would double investment in the next five years to speed up development of infrastructure in the country to achieve 9 per cent growth in the 12th five year plan. Inaugurating a conference on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) on National Highways here, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said the investment in this sector will rise to about one trillion dollars. This, he said, was necessary to achieve the target of nine per cent growth during the 12th five-year plan. The Prime Minister said the private sector has a potential to play an important role in development of rural infrastructure, which will also save cost overruns. He said infusion of private capital will ease the pressure on limited resources and improve the efficiency of service delivery. The PM called for transparency in awarding highway projects to eliminate the possibility of favouritism or crony capitalism. “It is necessary to demonstrate that the award, construction and operation of these (highways) projects is based on a fair and transparent approach which eliminates any suspicion of favouritism or what might be described as crony capitalism,” he stated. He asserted that public interest must be foremost while awarding Public-Private Partnership contracts in the infrastructure sector. He further said for a large road-building programme, “efficiency, economy, competition and transparency are vital touchstones that should be used for judging our level of success. These are especially important when we deal with the private sector.”

“We must remember that these are public projects where public interest must be foremost in our mind,” he added.

The Prime Minister also said the state governments have a crucial role to play in developing road infrastructure and the objective of infrastructure development to push the growth cannot be achieved without their participation. He further said an infrastructure debt fund is being set up to expedite work on long-term projects.

He added, “A high-level committee is already examining measures for financing such ambitious projects. 

Government to double investment in the next five years to speed up development of infrastructure

The goal is 9 per cent growth in the 12th five year plan

Under the National Highways Development Programme, roads having a collective length of about 25,000 km are proposed to be built through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode during the next three years