Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman (Photo: ANI)

NEW DELHI: A task force to draw up a national infrastructure pipeline has been set up by finance minister to implement the government’s plan of investing Rs 100 lakh crore over the next five years in the crucial infrastructure sector.

The task force would be headed by the department of economic affairs (DEA) secretary and will have the CEO of government think tank or his nominee as one of the members. The other four members would be drawn up from the administrative ministry and the DEA.

The terms of reference of the task force would be to include identifying technically feasible, financially and economically viable infrastructure projects that can be started in 2019-20. The panel would also list the projects that can be included in the pipeline for each of the remaining five years between 2021-2025. It has been tasked to estimate the annual investment and capital costs and guide the ministry in identifying appropriate sources of financing. The panel will suggest measures to monitor the projects so that cost and time overrun is minimised.

The national infrastructure projects would include greenfield and brownfield projects worth above Rs 100 crore each.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the setting up of the panel when she unveiled measures to revive economic growth. The government has unveiled a raft of measures to boost growth amid a slowdown in economic expansion and criticism about the government’s handling of the economy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his independence day speech had said that Rs 100 lakh crore would be invested on infrastructure in the next five years and would include social and economic infrastructure projects.

The government has set a goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. The country needs to spend about $1.4 trillion (Rs 100 lakh crore) over these years on infrastructure. In the past decade India invested $1.1 trillion on infrastructure. Policymakers recognise that the challenge is to step up annual infrastructure investment so that lack of infrastructure does not emerge as an obstacle to growth.

