The infrastructure development industry in India is getting bigger; innovation and technology are becoming drivers for growth, says SUBHASH SETHI. Infrastructure development has always been a key player in developing economies. In India, we earnestly need greater focus on infrastructure develop...
The infrastructure development industry in India is getting bigger; innovation and technology are becoming drivers for growth, says SUBHASH SETHI. Infrastructure development has always been a key player in developing economies. In India, we earnestly need greater focus on infrastructure development to sustain the economic growth. Adequate infrastructure is required for propelling the Indian economy towards the $5 trillion vision over the next few years. Infrastructure
is part of our daily life, be it
transport helping us in our
commute between places, energy
systems to power our homes and
businesses, water infra to provide
us clean drinking water, sanitation
networks to keep the city clean
and healthy, and digital networks
allowing us to communicate.
The infrastructure sector
was one of the major focus
areas in the FY2019 budget and
saw announcement of massive
spending on roads, railways,
water, irrigation, and urban
infrastructure. The Finance
Minister has announced that the
government will spend
Rs.100 trillion on infrastructure
upgradation over the next five
years, a critical step towards
the aspiration of making India a
$5 trillion economy. An expert
committee is being set up to
recommend the structure and flow
of funds through the development
of finance institutions.
As the government started
strongly on its second stint at the
Centre, we expect that a number
of large infrastructure projects
will be initiated apart from the
thrust that has been given to
the existing and currently under
execution projects like Smart
City Mission, AMRUT watersupply and irrigation, roads and
highways, metro-rail, Sagarmala
and Bharatmala schemes,
Swachh Bharat Mission, National
Mission for Clean Ganga, and
river development and interlinking.
The power sector schemes like
Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram
JyotiYojana (DDUGJY), Ujwal
Discom Assurance Yojna (UDAY),
Integrated Power Development
Scheme (IPDS), Unnat Jyoti
by Affordable Lighting for All
(UJALA), Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar
Yojana (Saubhagya) towards
the development of power
transmission, distribution and
rural electrification, will continue
to be in execution for powering
the nation.Growth 2.0In an effort to ensure India鈥檚
water security and providing
access to safe and adequate
drinking water to all Indians,
the government envisages toprovide water supply to every
household by 2024 under the
flagship scheme of Jal Jeevan
Mission. An estimated RS.6.3 trillion
investment is needed in the next
five years to achieve the massive
task of connecting about
140 million rural and urban
households with piped water
supply. The Jal Jeevan Mission
will converge with other Central
and state-government schemes
to achieve its objectives of
sustainable water supply
management across the country.
Giving it priority, the Prime
Minister appealed to all states to
generate maximum community
participation in the form of
Jan Andolan to achieve the
target of functional household tap
connection by 2024.The recent announcement
to speed up the implementation
of projects under the Smart City
Mission with a new target of Rs.2 trillion would involve completely
turning around the mission to
award works worth Rs.2 trillion on
the ground till 2022. Under the
Smart Cities Mission, more than
5,000 projects worth over
Rs.2.05 trillion are at various stages
of implementation. Currently,
over 3,500 projects worth
Rs.1.35 trillion have been tendered,
over 2,800 projects worth
Rs.900 billion have been grounded
for construction and over 900
projects worth Rs.150 billion have
already been completed.It is projected that India
will become the third largest
construction market globally
by 2022 and there will be an
investment requirement worth
`50 trillion in infrastructure.
Sectors such as water supply
and irrigation, power, roads,
metro rail, and renewable energy
will drive the investments in the
coming years.Traditionally, the government
has been the sole financier of infrastructure projects for
implementation, operations and
maintenance. But a paradigm
shift is visible to finance and
execute mega projects and
the government is making
efforts to create an environment
for sustainable and scalable
involvement of the private
players. Several new business
models of project financing are
being experimented with more
proactive participation from the
private sector in the form of hybrid
annuity, PPP and other formats.Infrastructure challengesThe government has also
initiated a number of measures
to increase the speed of
construction. Going ahead, the
sector is poised to rebound with
new opportunities. But growth
of the infrastructure sector is
dependent on solving some
key challenges that need to be
addressed including investment
gaps, funding issues, land
acquisition and environmental
clearance, lack of coordination
between various government
agencies, inappropriate structuring of projects, lack
of proper dispute resolution
mechanism, payment and
execution delays, old methods of
construction and lack of adoption
of innovative technologies, etc. It
is also possible that projects may
fail or may be terminated prior
to the project term for a number
of reasons including change in
government policy, failure by
the developer or the government
to perform their obligations
or indeed due to other
external circumstances.SPML connectFrom its inception in 1981,
SPML has executed no less than
600 infrastructural projects, in
areas ranging from drinking water
facilities, wastewater treatment,
sewerage network and better
municipal waste management to
smart cities, renewable energy
and power transmission and
distribution. These achievements
speak amply about the
ISO 9001-2015 certified
company鈥檚 dedication to
improving lives of millions
of Indians.In the area of sustainable
water management, it is currently
engaged in Phase-III of the
Saurashtra-Narmada Avtaran
Irrigation Project (SAUNI Yojana),
the ambitious large water supply
and irrigation project envisages to
provide drinking water facilities to
around 39 million people across
132 towns and 11,456 villages
and to irrigate 1.8 million hectare
of land in Saurashtra, Kutch and
north Gujarat benefiting millions
of farmers. SPML Infra has earlier
completed the Phase-I and
Phase-II of this project.The company is also working
on urban water supply projects,
including one aimed at improvingSPML Infra has constructed
a number of sewage treatment
plants (STP) including 240 MLD
STP in Ahmadabad, 72 MLD STP
in Delhi, 70 MLD STP in Nasik,
and 115 MLD decentralised
STPs and pumping stations as
one of India
