RBI should help government revive stalled projects, says Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: As the government looks for a booster shot for the faltering economy, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today said the Reserve Bank should help reignite stalled projects by creating a framework for restarting them.

"They (RBI) should also help us to reignite the stalled projects. The stalled projects need funding and I think if we can get the support of RBI to help create a framework by which this stalled project can be restarted, we would love to start them yesterday," he said.

Goyal was speaking on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

He did not elaborate however as to what help the government wants from the Reserve Bank of India, which did not lower the key interest rate yesterday at its fourth bi-monthly monetary policy review of the current fiscal.

It also lowered the growth projection to 6.7 per cent for 2017-18, from its earlier estimate of 7.3 per cent.

With demonetisation and implementation of GST slowing down the economic growth to three-year low, the Asia's third biggest economy is looking at measures to create jobs.

Reviving stalled projects is one such measure.

"The good part is this government, led by Modi, is in fiscal stimulus mode right from 3.5 years. Our pace of implementation has been a nature of the stimulus. This is a government which has been giving stimulus continuously, we don't need any time-frame... We continue to persevere to add value to the economy," he said.

The government has been battling wide-spread concerns over growth slowing to 5.7 per cent in April-June, the weakest pace since 2014 when BJP came to power, and is working on a stimulus package to revive the economy.