Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman constituted a task force headed by Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Mr Atanu Chakraborty for drawing up National Infrastructure Pipeline of Rs 100 lakh crore ($1.4 trillion) from the fiscal year 2019-20 to 2024-25.
Key Points:
i. Members: It includes the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NITI Aayog Mr Amitabh Kant or his nominee; Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance or his nominee; Secretary of the Administrative Ministry; Additional Secretary (Investment), Department of Economic Affairs & Joint Secretary, Infrastructure Policy & Finance Division, DEA.
ii. ToR: The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the task force is to identify technically feasible and financially/ economically viable infrastructure projects that can be initiated in FY 2019-20; To list the projects that can be included in the pipeline for each of the remaining 5 years between FY 2021-25; To estimate annual infrastructure investment/capital costs; To guide the Ministries in identifying appropriate sources of financing; and to suggest measures to monitor the projects so that cost and time overrun is minimized.
iii. Constituents: The National Infrastructure Pipeline will include greenfield and brownfield projects costing above Rs 100 crore. It enables robust marketing of the pipeline of projects requiring private investment through the India Investment Grid and National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
iv. Purpose: The task force has been set up to make the country $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. For this, India needs to spend about Rs 100 lakh crore over these years on infrastructure.
v.Deadline: The Task Force will submit its Report on Pipeline by 31st of October for the fiscal year 2019-20 and on the indicative pipeline for fiscal years 2021- 25 by 31st of December 2019.
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