Country Needs To Do Much More To Attain 9-10% Infrastructure Growth, Says PM

Country Needs To Do Much More To Attain 9-10% Infrastructure Growth, Says PMThe country is not meeting up its infrastructure growth objectives and requires revising its approach of carrying out mega projects.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made this announcement today while addressing the country's top policy forum.

While addressing a meeting of the National Development Council (NDC), Dr. Singh stated, "The state of infrastructure in the country is not good enough to achieve 9-10 percent growth over a sustained basis. We need to do much more in future."

India plans to double up its investment in the infrastructure segment between 2012-2017 to $1 trillion, which is approximately the size of its existing GDP.

Infrastructure growth is among the primary subjects on the agenda of the NDC meeting that is being attended by all chief ministers, members of the Planning Commission and key members of the central cabinet.

Indian PM stated while some progress had been made in projects via the public-private partnership route, there was need to remodel the way infrastructure development contracts were awarded.

"We also need to improve the terms and conditions on which PPP projects are awarded to ensure that the process is transparent, bidding is competitive and public interest is adequately safeguarded." (With Inputs from Agencies)