The NDA government presented its third Budget on March 29 and in a sense it was an important one as it marked the midway Budget of the government. While almost everyone hailed the Budget, its focus on rural growth, rural electrification, infrastructure, focus on agriculture, among others, paved the way for boosting economic growth by ensuring quality government spend.
But of course implementation is key.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, Power Minister Piyush Goyal say the implementation process is already underway. CNBC-TV18 and Mint in a show titled Budget Verdict: The Infra Ministerial spoke to these ministers — in charge of various infrastructure-related portfolios — to understand the steps that have already been taken to start implementing the Budget proposals.
Key Highlights:
Suresh Prabhu
- Investment by Railways will have cascading effect on economic growth and aim to make Railways an engine of growth- Have a strategy on how Railways should start functioning properly. Also, preparing a business plan for the Railways- Have started freight rationalisation process and expect rates to go down. Railways is also working on new sources of revenue, essentially non-tariff. Lack of demand in steel, cement sectors is impacting freight revenue- Bringing in technology to address problems on a real-time basis - Have delegated decision making to make the process faster- Trying to address passenger complaints on real-time basis - Will increase conversion rate of broad gauge lines to 19 km/day by 2019 - Operating ratio hasn't deteriorated too much despite Pay Commission payoutNitin Gadkari:- Constructing an average of about 18 kilometres per day - Only 11 projects worth Rs 20,000 crore currently stalled - Will start work on waterways by March-end- All port stations in profit, expect Rs 10,000 crore profit by next year- Received a tender of Rs 4,000 crore for water ports- Confident of reaching targets in inland waterways, shipping and ports- Will issue tender for Mumbai-Baroda Express Highway by next month- Confident that we will add 2 percent of GDP to country's growth rate- Escalation costs, interest cost increase had lead to stalling projects- By May 26 issues of all stalled projects will be resolved- Expect cement demand to increase by May- Concrete roads are economically viable; states should give priority to it- Expect agri sector to turn around in next 2-3 years- Want to convert buses to electric, bio-diesel to save costs - To form a corporation to help states create bus ports
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