Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday held a meeting to overview the progress of 34 projects in the wellness and water sources sectors involving investments of Rs 3.6 lakh crore beneath the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).
While 24 of these projects worth Rs 80,915 crore are beneath the supervision of the wellness ministry, the division of water sources, river improvement & Ganga rejuvenation oversees 10 big projects worth Rs 2,79,604 crore, the finance ministry mentioned.
Secretaries of water sources and wellness attended the meeting, which focussed on the implementation of the projects and bottlenecks, if any. “The agenda was to discuss the progress of NIP projects, expenditure incurred so far and the initiatives taken to expedite the project implementation,” the ministry mentioned in a statement. This was the second overview meeting by Sitharaman with different ministries and departments to monitor and accelerate the NIP project implementation.
The NIP, which was launched with a total of 6,835 projects across different sectors, is now expanded to more than 7,300 projects in spite of the Covid-19 outbreak, the ministry mentioned. With the economy battered by the pandemic, a government process force had in April firmed up a road map for capital investments of `111 lakh crore in infrastructure beneath the NIP more than six years by means of FY25, pledging 71% of the expenditure for power, roads, urban improvement and railways, and envisaging a essential function for private investors.
Sitharaman has asked the two ministries/departments to push infrastructure expenditure by correctly implementing NIP projects in time.
Many ministries and departments have shown substantial progress in project implementation and expenditure, in particular in the second quarter, according to the statement. “In addition, majority of ministries/departments have targeted substantially high Infra-expenditure in FY21 than the actual expenditure of FY20,” it added.
The Centre’s capex picked up at an impressive pace in the third quarter, following the lifting of the lockdown curbs. At Rs 43,803 crore, its capex in November surged by 248.5% on year, as it sought to reverse a slide in financial development by means of productive spending in essential sectors, primarily infrastructure. The capex in the April-November period, nevertheless, rose by only 12.8%, thanks primarily to sluggish expenditure in the initial months of the fiscal.