India needs Rs 14,89,500 cr in infrastructure sector

CII says the private sector would have to invest a whopping Rs 60,000 cr every year assuming that 20 per cent of the investment comes from private funding.

The country would need to invest a whopping Rs 14,89,500 crore within the next five years in the infrastructure sector, out of which the private sector would have to invest Rs 60,000 crore every year, according to industry body CII.

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India lagged behind East and Southeast Asian economies in in infrastructure spending vis-a-vis GDP. "While China spent 10.6 per cent of GDP, India's capital expenditure on infrastructure was below 4 per cent in 2003.

The disparity was even more stark in absolute figure terms, with China spending 150 billion dollars in 2003 against India's 21 billion dollars," a study by CII said.

The industry body appreciated the Planning Commission's draft approach paper to the Eleventh Plan, which mooted increasing investment from the current 4.6 per cent of GDP to 7-8 per cent in the Eleventh Plan period. But it pointed out that the target of 8 per cent was still short of 10 per cent figure, which the country needed to achieve.

"There is still a need for adopting a strategy in terms of how much would the government invest in the sector and to what extent was the private sector willing to invest besides FDI in infrastructure," according to the study.

The CII said the private sector would have to invest a whopping Rs 60,000 crore every year assuming that 20 per cent of the infrastructure investment came from private funding.

The industry body stressed on evolving a roadmap between the Government, states and the private sector for drawing an overall investment plan in the sector, the study suggested.