Infra players take up land, funding issues with FM Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday met representatives from the infrastructure industry to understand issues faced by them as the government looks at measures to boost housing and infrastructure sectors. Companies highlighted concerns including pace of execution of projects, financing and land issues, Ajit Gulabchand, chairman of Mumbai-based engineering and construction firm HCC, said after the meeting.

Emerging out of the meeting, National Highway Authority of India chairman N N Sinha said NHAI’s construction expenditure is more than last year. “We are well on way of awarding the number we have set for ourselves. So far, we have awarded road projects of 600 km.”

Gulabchand said there is a need to take steps to make the sector more investor friendly.


This was part of series of sectoral meetings being held by Sitharaman. The first was with the banking sector last month, after which the government announced measures to boost overall sentiment, including withdrawal of super rich surcharge from foreign portfolio investors and consolidation of state-owned lenders.