CEE Oct-Dec 2012

Sustainable Infrastructure INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT TARGET SET TO DROP BY 20 PER CENT India's ambitious target to invest $1 trillion to boost its infrastructure over the next five years is expected to be cut by at least 20 per cent, a move forced by slowing economic growth and a failure to meet investment targets in the sector by similar 20 per cent in the last five years. The $1 trillion figure was set as the target for the 12th five-year plan period of 2012-13 to 2017- 18. It is to be used for everything from building roads, bridges and airports to overcoming chronic power shortages. But government officials tasked with drawing up the five-year plans said the target is unlikely to be realized. The new number is expected to be at least 20 per cent lower at about $800 billion as investments, especially in sectors such as oil and gas, urban infrastructure and ports and telecom are expected to be far lower than earlier projections. The lower projections will also force banks and others to make corrections in the loans they can provide for the sector in the next few years. The other reason for the revision is that the 11 1 h plan has itself fallen short of the anticipated infrastructure investment. Instead of the $500 billion that was expected, the plan is likely to end with $100 billion less, although this was the most buoyant phase of growth of the Indian economy. The revised estimate will be part of the final 1 ih plan document to be reported to the meeting of the National Development Council in September. The council membership includes all chief ministers and the union cabinet and is the final authority for the adoption of each five-year plan. While even at $ 800 billion (about Rs 40,00,000 crore) the pace of investment is seen as sizable, officials said that there was an element of excitement associated with the figure of $1 trillion as a benchmark. The change is another of the painful adjustments the Indian government is being forced to make about the pace at which the economy will move. Recently, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia conceded that an annual GOP growth rate of close to 8.5 per cent will be difficult to achieve during the 12th plan. Vinayak Chatterjee, CEO of Feedback Ventures, an infrastructure firm and a close observer of the sector, said that the revision would be a sobering call for the planning commission and for policy-makers about the chances of a further slippage in the economy. In the current phase of slowdown with a sharp decrease in capital investment, not only are the projections for 2012-13 far worse, but the expectations for 2013 -14 are lower too. The IMF has projected that the Indian economy will recover next year but still grows only at 7.3 per cent. Chatterjee, however, said that the lower projections did not necessarily reflect a corresponding large cutback. "In rupee terms numbers still hold. The conversion into dollars of course in the current phase of sharp depreciation makes the estimate look bleak". Courtesy: The Indian Express New Delhi, 16.07.2012. CONCRETE PAVEMENTS TO REPLACE BITUMEN ROADS Bitumen roads, which constitute a major percentage of the roads in Guwahati, will soon become a thing of the past since the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has decided to change them to modern concrete pavements. The GMC is also considering construction and repair of 202 city streets whi ch are in a deplorable state. Depletion of bitumen roads because of artificial floods and pollution caused wh ile constructing bituminous surface is common. "The drawback of bitumen roads is that it gets depleted by frequent artificial floods. It also wears out after the first year of its construction whereas concrete pavements and interlocking concrete block pavements need no repairing for almost 20 years," chief engineer of the GMC, MIM Borah, said, adding, "Since burning of tires for making bitumen roads have been banned by the pollution control board, we had to adopt new methods. Also, both sides of the city by lanes are thickly populated and burning tires can cause serious health hazards. Using coal to burn bitumen is an option, but it is costly." GMC has already started its planning and preparation for the 202 major roads to get a facelift. It has forwarded the names of the roads for approval of the Guwahati Development 55