Celebrating 75 Years of Independence, India unfolds a revolution in its infra-story…from a once British ruled colonial state to one amongst the Dignified Democratic Nation
In the year 1947 on August 15th a new nation with new ambitions and growth prospects emerged. Self-reliance was one of the major motives that pushed India’s Struggle for Independence. And today, while celebrating 75 years of independence India stands firm with its growth vision of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. A sector that has been staunchly powering India’s growth vision has been the infrastructure sector. India’s infrastructure story has today unfolded a new saga of revolution among the developing nations with its refined approach and strategic initiatives.
From numerous economic meltdowns to the current pandemic of Covid-19 and now the rising concern of Monkeypox virus, Indian infrastructure remained as the core backbone supporting the nation to emerge as a Phoenix bird at the time of crisis.
The infrastructure sector has become the biggest focus area for the Government of India in envisioning its growth agenda. For which, the Government has outlined investments worth about US$1.4 trillion during the 2019-23 period to have a sustainable development.
Redefining India
From developing 100 Smart Cities to PradhanMantriAwasYojana and rapid urbanization programs to Smart Transportation Systems, Economic Corridors to Inland Waterways, the saga of India’s infrastructure sets a new benchmark each day. The Government through it’s infra focused agenda eyes to give an all-round makeover to India’s infra space. For instance, the roads and highways sector today has already set a benchmark by establishing and planning expressways and national highways from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Char Dham all-weather road, BharatmalaPariyojana, Atal tunnel, establishing north-east connectivity including Assam, Arunachal, Tripura and others, Delhi-Meerut expressway, Delhi-Mumbai expressway, Delhi-Dehradun, Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur, Mumbai-Pune, and Ganga Expressway to name a few.
Rail infrastructure on the other hand has seen developments like monorails and metro-rails to now even bullet trains being planned. Introducing one-of-its-kind luxurious trains like Vande Bharat, vista-dome coaches to improving existing rail infrastructure and allied facilities like doubling the number of rail lines to electrification of tracks and even establishing fully Wifi equipped digitally rich rail stations. Similarly focus has also been on strengthening the regional connectivity through initiatives like Regional Rapid Rail Transport Systems (RRTS). Wherein, several projects are now under implementation and the prime line running between Delhi-Meerut is set to be fully complete by early next year.
On the water transport front, the country’s major and minor ports are now being upgraded to equip international freights and passenger offloads. Establishing tech-rich machineries and real-time technologies is one among such an initiative. The inland waterway network and Sagarmala Programmeare another such projects aimed at nourishing the country’s water transport system. On the air-transport mode, the country is witnessing massive transformations through establishment of airports not only for domestic connectivity but also on international fronts. Udaan scheme is a milestone achieved on this front in regional connectivity, especially in bringing the north-eastern states within the loop. 423 routes under Regional Connectivity Scheme – RCS UDAN is alreadyoperationalized today.
According to a recent IBEF report, “India plans to spend US$ 1.4 trillion on infrastructure through ‘National Infrastructure Pipeline’ in the next five years. In FY21, infrastructure activities accounted for 13 per cent share of the total FDI inflows of US$ 81.72 billion. India will need to construct 43,000 houses every day until 2022 to achieve the vision of Housing for All by 2022. Hundreds of new cities need to be developed over the next decade. Over the next 10 years, demand for urban freight is predicted to increase by 140 per cent. Final-mile freight transit in Indian cities accounts for 50 per cent of the total logistics expenditures in the country's increasing e-commerce supply chains. India is expected to become the third-largest construction market globally by 2022. Indian logistics market is estimated to touch US$ 320 billion by 2025.”
To encourage rooftop solar (RTS) throughout the country, notably in rural regions, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is undertaking Rooftop Solar Programme Phase II, which aims to install RTS capacity of 4,000 MW in the residential sector by 2022 with a provision of subsidy. In addition, the government announced Rs. 305,984 crore over the next five years for a revamped, reforms-based and result-linked new power distribution sector scheme.
In November 2021, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$ 250-million loan to support development of the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICDP). This is a part of the US$ 500-million loan to build 11 industrial corridors bridging 17 states.
Furthermore, the Government has also announced 100 PM-GatiShakti Cargo Terminals for multimodal logistics facilities to be developed in the next three years. The focus is levied upon enhancing and upgrading from roads to trains, from aviation to agriculture, as well as many ministries and departments, which will be integrated under the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.
Recently, India also has joined hands with its Asian counterpart Japan for infrastructure development in India's Northeast states and are also setting up an India-Japan Coordination Forum for development of Northeast to undertake strategic infrastructure projects for the region.
Indian infrastructure story thus unfolds a promising path ahead to soon realise its dream of embracing the developed cadre.
