The government has reduced its budgetary allocations to infrastructure development in the Interim Budget.
What were the announcements made?
The infrastructure, both social and physical, was named as the first dimension of Vision 2030 in the interim Union Budget 2019.
Roadways - India has emerged as the fastest highway developer in the world with 27 km of highways being constructed per day.
Some of the road projects stuck for decades, such as Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Bogibeel Bridge in Assam have been completed.
The government has allocated Rs. 19,000 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which is a rural roads scheme to provide all-weather access to eligible unconnected habitations.
This is similar to last year's budget allocation for this scheme.
Airways - The UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme has increased the number of operational airports in India.
As a result, domestic passenger traffic has doubled during the last five years.
Waterways – For the first time, a container cargo was moved via inland waters from Kolkata to Varanasi and the same would be introduced to deliver containers to North East via Brahmaputra river.
This shows the significance of Sagarmala Programme in using the potential of India's inland waterways.
Railways – Capital expenditure programme of Railways is at an all-time high of Rs 1.58 lakh crore in the next fiscal.
All unmanned level crossings in broad gauge network have been completely eliminated.
These changes have meant fast connectivity to those parts of the country that were difficult to access in the past.
For example, Arunachal Pradesh is now on the air map and states such as Meghalaya and Mizoram now figure on India’s rail map for the first time.
Also, the first indigenously built Vande Bharat Express was introduced in line with Make in India drive.
What are the concerns?
Despite these successes, the interim Budget has been disappointing on many fronts on the Infrastructure sector.
Even though the railways has received its highest ever capital expenditure (capex) of Rs 1.58 trillion, an equitable allocation for the road and aviation sectors was not witnessed.
For instance, the government has reduced its budgetary support to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) by over Rs 631 crore.
As a result, the NHAI would have to now gear up for higher fundraising through borrowing and monetising road assets.
Similarly, on the Sagarmala scheme, the government spent only Rs 381 crore in FY19 despite a Budget allocation of Rs 600 crore and the allocation is further reduced to Rs 550 crore in FY20.
Since Infrastructure sector is a most important engine of economic growth and job creation in the country, the government has to enhance allocations for the sector.
