Total lending to the infrastructure sector by all financial institutions has risen 40.8% to Rs 3,80,122 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 2,69,972 crore in March, 2009. Out of this, lending by the public sector banks (PSBs) rose 38% to Rs 3,37,018 crore from Rs 2,44,304 crore.
India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFC), which started its operations in April 2006 and provide loans for infrastructure projects for a period exceeding 10 years, has in total disbursed Rs 11,837.27 crore as against a total sanctioned amount of Rs 24,376 crore for various core sector projects till March 2010.
Among the segments, IIFC has the maximum exposure of Rs 3,971.61 crore to the power sector against a sanctioned amount Rs 11,429 crore as on March 2010. For the road sector, the exclusive infra sector financing company has disbursed about Rs 3,507.06 crore as against the sanctioned amount of Rs 9,810 crore. IIFC has disbursed Rs 285.62 crore for port sector, Rs 664.51 crore for airports and Rs 47 crore for urban infrastructure till March 2010.
The company has also refinanced Rs 1,500 crore to different institutions till March 2010.
However, in an interesting trend, the exposure of small & medium PSBs to core sectors has been more compared with some of their larger counterparts. While Allahabad Bank’s infrastructure finance portfolio has grown by 58% from Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 12,647 crore in 2009-10, Bank of Baroda has seen its portfolio increase only by 7%, to Rs 18,402 crore from Rs 17, 702 crore.
Simultaneously, when Bank of Maharashtra has almost doubled its portfolio to Rs 7,308 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 3,662 crore, Punjab National Bank has seen its portfolio shrink 2% from Rs 24,992 crore to Rs 24,520 crore during the reporting period.
Nagesh Pydah, executive director, PNB, said growth can’t be the indicator as the bank’s sanctions in the segment is quite comfortable though draw down might not be there in that proportion.
?The financial closures of many projects are yet to complete in most of the cases,” he said.
The bank has big plans for infrastructure in 2010-11 and wants to raise resources through infrastructure bonds. ?We were part of the consortium of banks that financed the T3 terminal at the New Delhi airport that became operational last week,” he said.
Bank of India?s executive director M Narendra said his bank’s outstanding amount to the infra sector had gone up 57% in 2009-10 to Rs 16,530 crore.