Government committed to infra projects: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to industry

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today assured the industry that his governemnt is committed to giving a big push to investment in infrastructure projects which will also help the economy to recover from slowdown.

Singh gave this assurance to CII President B Muthuraman and Director General Chandrajit Banerjee who called on him.

"The Prime Minister told us that he is committed towards infrastructure projects...," Banerjee said.

He said that the industry is keen that all the projects, particularly in the infrastructure sector should be given expeditious approval by different ministries and other agencies.

Several projects in the iron ore, coal, power, highways and steel are held up for want of regulatory clearances amdist differences between various ministries as also divergence of views between the Centre and the states.

At a meeting with chief ministers of southern states on December 18, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had expressed concern that projects worth Rs 40,000 crore were held up only in southern region.

The industry feels that the best way to deal with the slowdown is to boost investment in the infrastruture projects.