PM to review progress on infra projects today

After biting the bullet on gas price, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may come up with big-ticket measures for reviving the infrastructure sector in a review meeting on Friday. 

Policy bottlenecks in the highways, railway and power ministries are likely to be addressed, sources said.

The Prime Minister’s Office has sought details of the progress made on the key infrastructure projects of these ministries.

“Progress on projects worth at least Rs 50,000 crore being handled by the railway ministry will be discussed,” a senior railway ministry official told dna.

The railway projects in question are the Rs 21,000 crore Mumbai elevated rail corridor, two locomotive units and the western and eastern dedicated freight corridor projects.  Officials are likely to apprise the PM on the deadlines set for each project.   

On the highways front, the surface transport ministry feels most of the issues have been ironed out. “The developer substitution has been already allowed by the Cabinet – a move that will see new takers for the projects that are stuck. Plus the ministry will also invest about Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore in the EPC contract-based highways,” transport secretary Vijay Chibber told dna.

Experts, however, feel that across segments, the infrastructure sector needs intervention to rake in investment.

“For the highways sector, the immediate priority should be to get a regulator in place. Secondly, the government needs to speed up the awarding of the 10,000 km EPC projects. Also, the Rs 10,000-12,000 crore projects stuck in arbitration with the NHAI have to be settled on a fast-track basis,” Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman, Feedback Ventures, said.

“Railways need to set up a tariff authority and at least award 10 PPP projects by the next quarter,” he said.