Expressing dismay over lag in infrastructure projects, the Planning Commission has said investments in key sectors like roads, railways and ports will be "significantly lower" in the 11th Five year Plan.
According to the Commission, the actual investments in these three sectors are likely to be about 21 per cent lower at Rs 5.20 lakh crore than the originally estimated amount of Rs 6.64 lakh crore in the 11th Plan period, ending March 2012.
The projected investment in the road sector is significantly lower at Rs 2.78 lakh crore compared with Rs 3.14 lakh crore in the original projections, the Commission said in a recently prepared document.
"The decline in investment is due to shortfall in the award of road projects by NHAI during the first three years of the the Plan," it said.
On the Transport Ministry's recent attempts to achieve completion rate of 20 KM of highways per day, the Plan Panel said that "this is likely to increase the investment during the last two years of the Plan, but the major build up in expenditure will be in the 12th Plan (2012-17)".
Besides, the apex think tank of the government also said that projected investment in Railways, including metro rails, in the 11th Plan is now expected to be Rs 2 lakh crore, which is 23.3 per cent lower than the earlier estimates of Rs 2.61 lakh crore.
Expressing concern over the slow progress in awarding projects through public-private partnership (PPP) route by the Railways, the paper said, "Rs 8,316 crore is expected by way of private investment which is only 16.5 per cent of the original projections".
On investments in the port sector, the paper said that the progress has been "much below expectations" as investments are expected to be 53 per cent lower at Rs 40,647 crore, compared to the original estimates of Rs 87,995 crore.
Even, the private investment in the port sector is expected to be almost 40 per cent lower than the projections, the Panel added.
"This is because very few PPP projects have been awarded by the respective Port Trusts in the first two years of the Eleventh Plan," the commission said.
