Finance Ministry sets up task force to identify infra projects for Rs 100 lakh crore investment

NEW DELHI: The government has set up a task force to draw up a list of infrastructure projects that can be set rolling in 2019-20 as it looks at steps to tide over the economic slowdown. The finance ministry, in a statement Saturday, said the task force would prepare a road map for the “national infrastructure pipeline” from 2019-20 to 2024-25 under a `100 lakh crore infra plan. The task force headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty would cover greenfield and brownfield projects costing above `100 crore each.

“Availability of quality infrastructure is a prerequisite 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,” the statement said.

The government has unveiled several measures to lift the overall sentiment and to provide a leg up to the economy that recorded a growth of 5% in the first quarter of FY20, its slowest pace in six years.


Other qualifications to add an infra project in the pipeline for the current year would include availability of a detailed project report, feasibility of implementation, inclusion in the financing plan and readiness or availability of administrative sanction, the statement added. The task force would look for financially and technically viable projects that can be started in 2019-20. It would ascertain annual infrastructure costs, guide the ministries concerned in finding appropriate sources of funding and monitor the projects to ensure minimisation of cost and time overrun. Each ministry would be responsible for monitoring their respective projects in terms of cost and deadlines. The panel would also enable marketing of the projects in the pipeline through the India Investment Grid and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, among others.

The task force would submit its reports on prospective plans for 2019-20 by October 31 and those till 2025 by December 31. In the decade between FY2008 and FY2017, India has spent about $1.1 trillion on infrastructure.