Budget wish list: Big-ticket projects, grant for NCR projects

Still basking under the glory of its historic hat trick in Haryana, the Nayab Singh Saini government has high hopes from the Union Budget 2025-26, to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.

Big-ticket projects and special grant for the execution of major projects in the National Capital Region (NCR) are on the Haryana Government’s wish list, which has already been ‘conveyed’ to the Central government and the Finance Ministry.

Some of these projects include the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor, a 122-km project from Palwal to Sonepat, 1,000-acre integrated multi-modal logistics hub at Narnaul, India International Horticulture Market at Ganaur (Sonepat) and the Delhi-Panipat fast rail corridor, as part of the regional rapid transport system.

Chief Minister Nayab Saini, who also holds the finance portfolio, today exuded confidence that adequate allocations would be made for various Haryana projects. "We have high hopes from the Union Budget, though it is prepared keeping in mind the country as a whole,” he said.

Sources, however, said Saini had already conveyed the state’s wish list to the Union Government. In fact, at the pre-Budget consultations of the state finance ministers at Jaisalmer last month, Saini brought to the notice of Sitharaman and her team from the Finance Ministry various projects for which the state needed resources to realise the dream of Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Being closer to Delhi, Haryana is invariably a major beneficiary of any national level project announced in the Union Budget. In fact, various projects announced by the Finance Minister for several sectors, including rural development and agriculture, have benefited the state directly or indirectly, a senior officer said.

However, this time, the state government was expecting a big-ticket project in the Union Budget, which would be a perfect reward for people of Haryana, who had voted for the saffron party for the record third term in office, a senior BJP functionary stated.

Sitharaman’s “silence” on any big-ticket projects to Haryana in the last Budget had disappointed the BJP government in the election year in 2024.