Infrastructure targets met

Almost all infrastructure sectors, barring landline phones and road repairs, recorded higher growth in the first 11 months of the last financial year, according to the latest review of infrastructure performance undertaken by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

In the April-February period, all sectors"" except finished steel, fertilisers, cement and roads"" exceeded their targets, said an official press release.

In February 2005, all sectors except power, coal, net addition in telecom switching capacity, provision of new cell phone connections, fertilisers, crude oil and refinery production, recorded higher growth in as compared to the corresponding month last year.

The civil aviation sector topped the list with double-digit growth in all its fields. The highest increase of 25.8 per cent in the handling of import cargo, followed by 23.9 per cent growth in handling of passengers at domestic terminals, 14.3 per cent hike in passenger handling at international terminals and 12.6 per cent rise in export cargo handling.

The second was telecom with a 21.1 per cent rise in addition of switching capacity and a 13.9 per cent growth in cell phone connections. The only area of concern was provision of new landline connections, which suffered mainly because of surrender and preference for cell phones, the release added.

The roads sector also did very well with a 20.3 per cent increase in the upgradation of highways. It, however, showed a negative trend in rehabilitation of roads and construction of bridges.

Ports also recorded a double-digit growth with a 10.9 per cent increase over the corresponding period of the previous year. It handled 344.64 million tonnes of cargo. Revenue earning rail freight traffic also recorded impressive growth of 7.6 per cent, handling 541.97 million tonnes of goods.

Power and coal sectors registered nearly 6 per cent growth, while it was slightly above 3 per cent in case of steel. Fertiliser production during the period totalled 14.18 million tonnes, a growth of 6.8 per cent, while cement production, at 119.03 per cent was higher by 6.5 per cent.

In the petroleum sector, refining production registered a 5 per cent growth at 116.22 million tonnes, while growth in crude oil production was hardly 2 per cent at 31.06 million tonnes, the release added.