Fe Insight

INFRASTRUCTURE

Highway road rage continues! More cess, Budget support for widening roads across country fe Bureaus   Budget 2005-06 has increased the cess on both petrol and diesel by 50 paise per litre each to fund additional road projects. On its part, the government has provided additional budgetary support. At present, the cess is Rs 1.50 per litre each on petrol and diesel. The National Highway Development Programme (NHDP), the engine behind the roll out and the four-laning of roads, has been give a higher allocation at Rs 9,320 crore during fiscal 2005-06 as compared to 6,514 crore in the current year. The funds will be part-utilised in undertaking the third phase of NHDP, which targets selected high density corridors that do not form part of the golden quadrilateral or the north-east, east-west corridors. The four laning of 4,000 kms of road will be part funded by budgetary support to the tune of Rs 1,400 crore. So far, the NHDP has made steady progress, having four laned 5,172 kms of road till January, 2005. The government has also approved a special package for the north-east (NE), allocated Rs 450 crore for funding the NE schemes. The additional cess proposed in the Budget will find its way to the road fund, which is given both to the states that construct the roads as well as the NHAI, which does it at the central level. NHAI funding has nearly been doubled for fiscal 2005-06, compared to the current year. During fiscal 2005-06, the NHAI plan expenditure, funded by the road fund, has been pegged at Rs 3,270 crore, up 77% over the current year’s Rs 1,848 crore Besides sustaining momentum on improving road infrastructure, the government has also laid emphasis on the unorganised or informal sector, which accounts for 92 % of employment and absorbs bulk of the annual accretion in labour force. It has stated in today’s Budget that it will be awaiting the recommendations of the National Commission on Enterprises in the unorganised /informal sector. “Once the proposals are finalised, pilot projects for growth poles will be taken up and financed,” finance minister P Chidambarm said on Monday in his Budget speech. The objectives of the growth poles are to expand production and employment in the unorganised enterprises around existing clusters of industrial activities and services as well as encourage the formation of new clusters.

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