Infra sector hit by roadblocks

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 27

The infrastructure sector continues to be clogged by bottlenecks, which has also resulted in it accounting for one of the highest stressed advances by public sector banks (PSBs), says the Economic Survey. However, it adds that a slew of steps are on fast track to help it grow.

“Infrastructure, iron and steel, textiles, mining (including coal) and aviation, hold 54% of total stressed advances of PSBs as on June 2014,” it said adding the exposure of PSBs to infrastructure stood at 17.5% of their gross advances and was significantly higher than private sector and foreign banks.

It said unfavourable market conditions and delayed investments in the past few years resulted in an “alarmingly high rate” of increase in stalled projects which, as of December-end, stood at a staggering Rs 8.8 lakh crore.

Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) framework in infrastructure sector needs restructuring to lift financial stress burdening the projects and to revive the interest of the private sector, the Survey said.

“In infrastructure, the focus has been on resolving long- pending issues such as pricing of gas, establishing processes and procedures for transparent auction of coal and minerals, and improving power generation and distribution,” it said.