Strategic push in government reforms in the infrastructure sector has been making way for big-ticket infra projects. For instance, Reliance raised over $ 1 billion investments for its fiber-optic assets and the Adani Group has been diversifying its business and growing geographically across Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka and more.
An analysis report by IBEF hints at the possibility of India becoming the world’s third-largest construction market by 2022 and achieving sustainable development. However, this would be realised only if an investment of over a whopping Rs 50 trillion is made across the entire infrastructure sector by that year. (Also Read: Adani Coal Project in Goa)
While the figures are substantial, strategic push by the government has infused confidence amongst private sector brands to envision big ticket infra projects. The latter includes Reliance that raised over $1 billion dollar worth investment last year for its fiber-optic assets. Similarly, major port and power industry pioneer, the Adani Group has been foraying into new ventures and growing geographically across Goa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, etc.
Investment plans of around USD 1.4 trillion during 2019-2023 for the infrastructure sector are underway from the government’s end. Of this, a significant portion has been allocated for the railways. Leveraging its partnership with Hitachi which dates back to decades, the Ministry of Railways has launched Vision 2024 as a part of its efforts to augment the National Rail Network.
A number of plans are afoot under the ‘Vision 2024’ initiative. Electrification of rail networks, addition of lines along the high-density networks, speed upgradation on Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes and elimination of level crossings on all GQ/GD routes, are a few of them.
In the private sector, Gautam Adani, mainly known for mines, ports and power plants projects, is slowly foraying into other sectors. Adani Group Goa port projects and others across , Chennai, Gujarat, etc., and its slew of power plants projects are well-known. However, the group’s newest ventures include data centres and airports.
Last but not the least, apart from such notable investments, Mangal Dev, Director, Hitachi India, is of a view that the completion of critical infrastructure under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) can also potentially help in achieving India’s goal of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy. For this, the annual infrastructure investment has to be increased in order to overcome the infrastructure deficit.