Top 5 infra priorities suggested for Modi government

Vinayak Chatterjee

The infrastructure agenda is humongous and a new establishment could be lost in the labyrinth of choices. The top five priorities being suggested are:

1) In power, it would be the de-nationalization of the coal sector and creation of a National Power Distribution Company (NPDC), along the lines of NTPC and PowerGrid. NPDC should be mandated to pick up the output of stranded capacities and India can stop waiting forever for state discoms to reform themselves. It should also give a fillip to “open access”.

2) Railways should be corporatized and the Indian Railways Corporation (IRC) created. A truly independent Indian Rail Regulatory Authority (IRRA) needs to be established to distance the IRC from the government. The IRC should be governed by a reconstituted Indian Railways Executive Board (IREB). Railways would then be institutionally ready to implement futuristic projects and upgrade its operations.

3) On infra finance, it would be to create an enabling environment for rapid ramp-up of infra debt funds to address the issue of non-availability of longterm funding and the clear constraints of the commercial banking system.

4) To clear infra logjams, an energetic infrastructure ministry should be created by reshaping the ministry of programme implementation.

5)Land bank corporations should be set up at the central level and mirror-imaged at the state level. They should acquire large tracts of unused, unusable or waste land and develop them ex-ante for industrial, commercial, social and institutional purposes.

(The writer is chairman, Feedback Ventures)