The government expects infrastructure investment of close to 10 per cent of gross domestic product in the 12th Five Year Plan starting April 2012, with underlying assumptions of 9 per cent GDP growth and faster award of projects in the development of ports and roads.
The projected investment in the next Plan is considerably higher than the new estimate of 7.55 per cent of GDP in the ongoing Plan period. Thanks to massive private investments in telecommunication and oil & gas pipelines, the target for the current Plan will be nearly achieved. This is despite some slippages in investments in roads and ports in the initial years of the Plan. Here too, a fresh momentum has recently become visible.
“The economy will enter the 11th Plan in a much stronger position as far as infrastructure is concerned than existed at the start of the 11th Plan. The projections imply that investment in the infrastructure sector during the Twelfth Plan would be of the order of a staggering Rs 40,99,240 crore or $1,024.81 billion. At least 50 per cent of this should come from the private sector,” states ‘Investment in Infrastructure,’ a Planning Commission report.
