By Shailesh Pathak

Thank you, finance minister, for announcing that surety bonds would be used in place of bank guarantees. This suggestion was made to her by Ficci president in December 2020 and solves a major problem in the construction sector. Our Budget expectations were four Cs: Coordination, Capacity, Construction & Contracts, and Confidence. All four are covered  in the push on infrastructure and urbanisation.

Coordination

The PM Gati Shakti Mission for multimodal connectivity includes 7 engines for transporting people or goods: roads, railways, airports, seaports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infrastructure. There is now an integrated implementation mechanism, with 16 ministries of government of India working together. Regional workshops on the Gati Shakti Mission have already taken place, and state governments are coming on board the BISAG-N platform. The Gati Shakti Mission would work towards seamless multimodal connectivity and logistics efficiency, with a focus on planning, financing (innovative ways included) use of technology, and rapid project implementation at speed and scale. This includes connectivity between mass urban transport and railway terminals on priority.

Capacity

The Budget speech in Para 27 mentions capacity building for infrastructure projects, and para 70 outlines support to state governments on urban planning, and 5 Centres of Excellence. The National Program & Project Management Policy Framework, announced earlier, would also work towards getting better professionals and skilled personnel to deliver rapid project execution with speed and scale.

Construction

An increased outlay of ‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ including Grants-in-aid to state governments, at Rs 10.68 trillion (4.1% of GDP) is even higher than the Rs 7.5 trillion capex budget of Government of India. The outlay has increased an unprecedented 2.2 times in only 3 years. Government revenues including GST (all-time high Rs 1.41 trillion) and direct tax receipts are buoyant, which would lead to even higher outlays.

Confidence

By expanding the public investment projects, the private sector would get the confidence to start investing in this year, now that coronavirus is becoming less virulent. We should see the ‘virtuous cycle of public investment to crowd-in private investment.’

Urban India

Urbanisation received special attention over 9 paras of the speech. This included attention to Urban sector policies, capacity building, planning, implementation and governance, and urban planning support to states, including modernisation of building by-laws, Town Planning Schemes (TPS) and Transit Oriented Development (TOD). For better urban planning and design, 5 centres of excellence would be developed on a zonal basis. Other welcome measures are on public transport, and battery swapping (Energy as a service) for the EV ecosystem. The Unique Land Parcel identification number (ULPIN) is a transformative initiative, as is the One nation One Registration software – backbone – National Generic Document Registration System. Both will improve ease of living.

My favourite success story is of course the Har Ghar, Nal se Jal (Jal Jeevan Mission). In the 19 crore rural households in India, just 30 months ago, only 1 in 6 homes had access to tap water. Today, 3 out of 6 women in rural India have tap water in their homes, and by August 2024, all 6 would have tap water. This will be the biggest lifestyle change for our rural sisters.

The writer is head, special initiatives, development projects, L&T. Views are personal.