DELHI (Metro Rail News): On Tuesday, Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, stated that 400 Vande Bharat Express would be introduced in the next three years. “One product, one railway station would be popularised,” Sitharaman said in her Budget 2022-23 speech.
As per FM Sitharaman in Lok Sabha, “400 new generation Vande Bharat trains with better efficiency to be brought in during the next three years; 100 PM, Gati Shakti Cargo terminals, to be developed during next three years and implementation of innovative ways for building metro systems.”
Moving forward on this parallel track, we lay the following four priorities – PM Gati Shakti, inclusive development, productivity enhancement and investment, sunrise opportunities, energy transition and climate action & financing of investments, said Finance Minister while presenting the Union Budget for 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha.
An integrated approach to planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects in the form of Gati Shakti touching on energy transition, climate action, logistics, and connectivity may arrest the bugbear of cost overruns and time overruns synonymous with Indian infrastructure.” The initial allotment of 20,000 crores towards the 100 lakh crores is commendable and a much-needed step.
However, it needs to be seen how the money will be implemented, and progress on infrastructure projects will be digitally enabled and monitored to eliminate infrastructure delivery bottlenecks. The sluggish pace of implementation has been attributed to several factors, including a siloed approach and environmental issues. However, the National Infrastructure Pipeline offered the initial building brick for rebuilding India’s energy and infrastructure.
According to Vishnu Sudarsan, Partner, J. Sagar Associates (JSA), “Integration and updation of National Infrastructure Pipeline with Gati Shakti with real-time updation on infrastructure projects will boost investor confidence, and rev up the private sector participation.”
