Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has acknowledged that infrastructure constraints were having a serious impact on India’s economic growth.

Speaking at the inauguration of GVK’s swanky Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai on January 10, the Prime Minister said, “As we all know, India`s infrastructure needs are enormous. The infrastructure deficit in the country is considered as a serious constraint limiting our rate of economic growth. And, therefore, we need to work doubly hard to bridge this deficit. The government alone cannot make the very large investment required to build world-class infrastructure in the country, and, therefore, we have been encouraging partnerships with the private sector.”

Manmohan Singh GVK_ProjectsMonitorUnderlining his government’s commitment to infrastructure development, Manmohan Singh said that several policy and regulatory reform measures had been introduced to encourage growth, private participation and investment in the sector.

“The decision to allow up to 49 per cent FDI by foreign carriers in domestic airlines, in addition to the FDI permissible in airport infrastructure, will help Indian carriers through equity infusion,” the PM said. He added that the government was committed to improving airport infrastructure through private participation in greenfield airports and public-private partnership in select airports currently being operated by Airports Authority of India. There were plans to develop and operationalise 50 more airports across the country, in Tier 2 & 3 cities, he noted.

The Prime Minister said that the construction of the new terminal was yet another example of successful execution of large infrastructure projects under PPP model which the government had been encouraging. “The success of Terminal-2 should give a boost to other PPP projects in the country, which are under implementation or at the planning stage,” Singh added.


Print pagePDF pageEmail page