Context: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has unveiled a  ?102 lakh crore national infrastructure pipeline, in accordance with the Narendra Modi government’s vision to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25.

Background:

The finance ministry had set up a task force headed by Economic Affairs Secretary to prepare a road map for the “national infrastructure pipeline” from 2019-20 to 2024-25 under the  ?100 lakh crore infra plan.

Sector- specific:

1. Irrigation and rural infrastructure projects would account for  ?7.7 lakh crore each. ?3.07 lakh crore would be spent on industrial infrastructure. Agriculture and social infrastructure would account for the rest.
2. Road projects will account for  ?19.63 lakh crore while another  ?13.68 lakh crore would be for railway projects.
3. Port projects would see spending of  ?1 lakh crore and airports another  ?1.43 lakh crore.  ?16.29 lakh crore would be spent on urban infrastructure and  ?3.2 lakh crore in telecom projects.
4. According to the sector-wise break-up of projects made available by the Finance Ministry,  ?24.54 lakh crore investment will flow in the energy sector, and of that ?11.7 lakh crore would be in just the power sector.
5. ?42 lakh crore NIP projects which are in the implementation stage now include expressways, national gas grid and PMAY-G.

About the National Infrastructure Pipeline and it’s significance:

It is estimated that India would need to spend $4.5 trillion on infrastructure by 2030 to sustain its growth rate. The endeavour of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), is to make this happen in an efficient manner.

Funding: The central government and state governments would have an equal share of 39% each in the NIP. The private sector, on the other hand, would have 22% share which the government expects to increase to 30% by 2025.

• National Infrastructure Pipeline will ensure that infrastructure projects are adequately prepared and launched.
• Each Ministry/ Department would be responsible for the monitoringof projects so as to ensure their timely and within-cost implementation.
• It will help in stepping-up annual infrastructure investment to achieve the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $5 trillion by 2024-25.

Need for infrastructure funding:

• Availability of quality infrastructure is a pre-requisite to achieve broad-based and inclusive growth on a sustainable basis.
• Investment in infrastructure is also necessary for sustaining the high growth rate of India.