Cement players cheer FY25 Budget proposal for dedicated corridor, infra spends

Cement sector expects demand growth from increase in fund allocation for PMAY

Cement companies gave a thumbs up to the Union Budget proposal to develop a cement corridor. The announcement under the railways would help improve logistics efficiencies and boost multimodal connectivity, said the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA).

The industry body counts top players  UltraTech Cement, JK Cement and JSW Cement as its members. "This budget retains its intent to continue the rapid growth momentum keeping the medium and long-term vision sharp. The strong thrust on research and innovation with infrastructure development is a move in the right direction," said Neeraj Akhoury, president and managing director of  Shree Cement Limited.

The Indian Railways has received a major push in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Interim Budget for 2024-25. "Three corridors, including a corridor for energy, mineral, and cement, another to enhance port connectivity corridor, and a third to decongest the high traffic density corridors will be set up," the finance minister said on February 1.

Also Read | Budget proposes 3 major railway corridors, upgrading 40,000 trains to Vande Bharat status 

Additionally, the budget hiked fund allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to Rs 80,671 crore. Two crore more houses will be taken up in the next five years to meet the requirement arising from increase in the number of families, Sitharaman said.

"The allocation to key sectors such as housing are steps in the right direction as these would both foster growth with employment,"  Parth Jindal, vice-president of CMA and managing director of JSW Cement.