To achieve $5 trillion economy, India has to invest $1.4 trillion in infrastructure in FY 2020-25: Economic Survey

The Economic Survey presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday stated that the country needs to invest $1.4 trillion during the financial year of 2020-25 in order to achieve its target of $5 trillion economy.

As per the economic survey, power shortages, inadequate transport and poor connectivity affect overall economic performance.

"To achieve GDP of USD 5 trillion by 2024?2025, India needs to spend about USD 1.4 trillion (Rs 100 lakh crore) over these years on infrastructure so that lack of infrastructure does not become a constraint to the growth of Indian economy," the survey stated.

"NIP is expected to enable well-prepared infrastructure projects that will create jobs, improve ease of living and provide equitable access for infrastructure for all thereby making growth more inclusive," it added.

As per the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), which was Rs 102 lakh crore infrastructure projects,  Central Government and state government are expected to have an equal share of funding in the project (39%), closely followed by the private sector (22%).

Moreover, the survey stated that the total investment in the roads and highways sector has spiked to more than 3 times in the five year period between 2014-2019.

"In 2017-2018 the share of transport sector in the Gross Value Added (GVA) was about 4.77 per cent of which the share of road transport is 3.06 per cent, followed by Railways (0.75 per cent), air transport (0.15 per cent) and water transport (0.06 per cent)," the economic survey stated.

The survey also highlighted the contribution of railways in the Indian economy, noting that Indian Railways carried 120 crore tones of freight and 840 crore passenger, making it the world's largest passenger carrier, and fourth-largest freight carrier.

In matters of civil aviation, the survey observed that India has 136 commercially managed airports by Airport Authority of India, and 6  Public-Private Partnerships for maintenance of airports.

The survey stated that 100 more airports will be operational by FY 2023-24, and the Indian carriers will double their fleet from  680 aircraft at the close of 2019 to 1200 by FY 2023-24.

The shipping sector turns out to be crucial for the economy as 95% of India's trade by volume is done through shipping and 68 per cent in terms of value is transported by sea, the Economic survey stated.

India currently has a fleet strength of 1,419 ships. The survey stated that the Shipping industry is striving to improve operational efficiency through mechanisation, digitisation and process simplification.

Observing the contribution of the construction and Mining sector towards the economy, the former recorded a growth of 25% in 2018-19 compared to last year value and the latter recorded 8.24% of the GDP.

The Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, a scheme introduced to provide affordable housing to the urban poor, was touted as one of the largest housing schemes of the world covering entire Urban India. Under the scheme, 32 Lakh houses have been completed and delivered.

Moreover, under the Smart City Mission, 5,151 projects worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore are under various stages of implementation, and 1290 projects worth Rs 22,569 crores have already been completed and operational. 

(With PTI inputs)