<p class="title">The Centre is aiming to spend Rs 100 lakh crore on infrastructure upgradation over the next five years, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">To achieve this, an expert committee will be set up to study the current situation relating to long-term finance and our past experiences with development finance institutions, and recommend the structure and required flow of funds through development finance institutions, she said in her Budget speech.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nirmala said infrastructure-financing needs have been estimated at around Rs 20 lakh crore a year and has proposed to enhance the sources of capital for infrastructure financing, including setting up a Credit Guarantee Enhancement Corporation, for which regulations have been notified by the Reserve Bank of India.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Terming connectivity the lifeblood of the economy, the minister announced a slew of steps to scale up India’s infrastructure programmes, including augmenting 1,25,000 km of rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana at a cost of Rs 80,250 crore and creating a national highways grid.</p>.<p class="bodytext">For the transport sector, Rs 83,000 crore has been allocated against last year’s Rs 78,626 crore.</p>.<p class="bodytext">She also announced that the government will carry out a comprehensive restructuring of the National Highway Programme to ensure that the National Highway Grid of desirable length and capacity is created using a finance-able model. She said that after completing Phase-1 of the project, which is called ‘Bharatmala’, states will be helped to develop state road networks in the second phase.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Central Road and Infrastructure Cess on petrol and diesel has also been raised by Re 1 per litre. This will give a boost to the development of infrastructure, she said.</p>
<p class="title">The Centre is aiming to spend Rs 100 lakh crore on infrastructure upgradation over the next five years, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">To achieve this, an expert committee will be set up to study the current situation relating to long-term finance and our past experiences with development finance institutions, and recommend the structure and required flow of funds through development finance institutions, she said in her Budget speech.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nirmala said infrastructure-financing needs have been estimated at around Rs 20 lakh crore a year and has proposed to enhance the sources of capital for infrastructure financing, including setting up a Credit Guarantee Enhancement Corporation, for which regulations have been notified by the Reserve Bank of India.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Terming connectivity the lifeblood of the economy, the minister announced a slew of steps to scale up India’s infrastructure programmes, including augmenting 1,25,000 km of rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana at a cost of Rs 80,250 crore and creating a national highways grid.</p>.<p class="bodytext">For the transport sector, Rs 83,000 crore has been allocated against last year’s Rs 78,626 crore.</p>.<p class="bodytext">She also announced that the government will carry out a comprehensive restructuring of the National Highway Programme to ensure that the National Highway Grid of desirable length and capacity is created using a finance-able model. She said that after completing Phase-1 of the project, which is called ‘Bharatmala’, states will be helped to develop state road networks in the second phase.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Central Road and Infrastructure Cess on petrol and diesel has also been raised by Re 1 per litre. This will give a boost to the development of infrastructure, she said.</p>