Infrastructure Sector Growth Declines To 3.6% In April - June 19, 2008

The growth rate of the six core infrastructure industries witnessed a dip in April this year compared to the same month last year. The combined growth recorded by the six core sector industries fell to 3.6 per cent in April as against 5.9 per cent in April 2007.

A more than 10 per cent growth in coal production along with improved performance by the steel and cement sector prevented the infrastructure index from dipping further under pressure from poor growth in electricity generation, crude oil production and petroleum refinery output. Coal production went up by 10.3 per cent in April (0.6 per cent in the same month last year), cement output gained by 6.9 per cent (5.8 per cent) while crude steel production improved by four per cent (2.7 per cent).

The three industries that created the downward pressure on the index are crude oil (from 1.4 per cent in April 2007 went down to 0.9 per cent in April 2008), refinery output (from 15.1 per cent to 4.3 per cent) and electricity generation (from 8.7 per cent to 1.4 per cent). In absolute terms, crude oil production in April 2008 was 2.81 million tonnes (2.79 mt in April 2007), petroleum refinery output was 12.13 mt (11.64 mt) and electricity generation was 58,815 GwH (58,030 GwH). Coal production went up to 34.98 mt (31.72 mt), cement output increased to 15.52 mt (14.52 mt) while steel production was 4.13 mt (3.97 mt).

Physical And Social Infrastructure Development

The annual Plan of Tripura for the fiscal 2008-09 has been estimated at Rs 1,450 crore, inclusive of the additional Central assistance of Rs 110 crore of projects of particular interest to the State. This was accorded here at a meeting between the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and the Chief Minister of Tripura, Mr Manik Sarkar. Mr Ahluwalia said that despite constraints the State has been performing fine in all sectors. The State was recommended to connect education with employability and to explore the possibilities for further expanding public private partnership in the development of both physical and social infrastructure.

Govt Shows Interest To Tap Infrastructure Funds From Arab

Bullish on bilateral cooperation in infrastructure projects, India will take a team to Saudi Arabia in May that will be headed by the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The effort would be to attract infrastructure funds for India from the Arab countries. The move to beef up cooperation between the two regions would be followed by a series of events, including an Indo-Arab Festival and a partnership conference in November and an Arab cultural festival, to be organised by the FICCI here under the Ministry of External Affairs.