INFRASTRUCTURE SPEND CONNECTIVITY Infrastructure Creation: Integrating the Nation G Raghuram he 2018-19 Union Budget national corridors; and border, coastal recognizes a total allocation and port connectivity roads. of Rs 5.97 trillion in infrastructure. This Both the Railways and the National T compares with an expected Highways Authority of India (NHAI) expenditure of Rs 4.94 trillion in are expected to source funds beyond 2017-18. The infrastructure allocations just internal surpluses and budgetary have not only been increasing in support. The Railways, apart from absolute terms, but also as a share the traditional sourcing through of total budgetary allocation. The bonds, are expected to bring in funds allocations have been going up in all the through public-private partnerships sub- sectors of infrastructure including (PPPs), especially in railway station railways, roads, aviation, etc. redevelopment and rolling stock manufacturing. The NHAI would use The Finance Minister at The single largest entity spend is schemes like toll, operate and transfer the start of his budget for the Indian Railways. The thrust in (TOT) and raising equity from the speech indicated that India the current budget has been on capacity market using road assets that have needed investments over Rs creation, including track doubling, crossed the transfer phase of the earlier 50 trillion in infrastructure third and fourth line works; 5,000 km build, operate and transfer (BOT). of gauge conversion; redeveloping 600 to “increase growth of GDP, In the maritime sector, the focus connect and integrate the railway stations; and introduction of modern train-sets. The proposed gauge is on spends as part of the Sagarmala nation with a network of roads, conversion would make the country Project. In aviation, the focus is on airports, railways, ports and broad gauge based unigauge system. improving airport capacity, developing inland waterways and to The budget also has a special focus on new airports and increasing connectivity provide good quality services”. suburban railways including Mumbai to unserved airports and helipads. He declared that the and Bengaluru.The spend on Mumbai Other domains of infrastructure government was committed would be part of Phase 3A of the Rs spend include the 99 smart cities to this and would ensure 0.55 trillion Mumbai Urban Transport and rural infrastructure through Project (MUTP). the required investment.The development of rural roads, houses, The Union Budget includes a electricity, sanitation, irrigation and challenge is not so much in water supply. the allocation of funds as in total outlay of Rs 1.21 trillion on strategizing appropriately road infrastructure. The spend is Bandwidth for Spending part of the approved Rs 5.35 trillion and ensuring timely Bharatmala Project, which includes One of the important challenges implementation development of economic corridors, with the increased allocations is our efficiency improvements on key ability to spend it effectively. For The author is Director, IIM Bangalore. He specializes in infrastructure and transport systems, and logistics and supply chain management. He has published over 35 refereed papers in journals and written over 155 case studies. He has co-authored six books. He has been part of various government policy making and advisory committees for various ministries of government of India. 56 YOJANA March 2018 example, even though the allocation for railways from Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) in 2017-18 was Rs 0.55 trillion, the expected actual spend has been revised downward to Rs 0.42 trillion. Consequently, the GBS provision for 2018-19 has been kept at Rs 0.55 trillion, without any increase and almost identical to the previous year’s provision. The inability to spend is a function of insufficient governmental bandwidth in putting out well-written project documents and quick processing of permissions; lack of legal and judicial bandwidth; and the significant non- performing infrastructure assets that put limits on debt financing. Stalled permissions and/or legal issues have held up many projects mid way. A concerted effort to protect and unlock Projectising as a Means of Directing successful infrastructure projects. The the Spend such assets is important. The Ministry second decadal phase of this project has been advanced to be completed of Road Transport and Highways On the credit side though, the by 2019 (instead of 2021), so that (MORTH) must be commended for allocations in different sectors over the third phase can be put in place. attempting to resolve legal issues in the past few years have tended to be Apart from deeper penetration, the many projects, though there are many guided by long-term multi-activity rural road network is focusing on others still stuck. project conceptualization like the improved maintenance and two-sided PradhanMantri Gram SadakYojana connectivity to facilitate not just It is rather unfortunate that though (PMGSY), Sagarmala, High Speed the budget gets such heightened annual Rail (HSR) and Bharatmala projects. physical connectivity, but also services. attention, there is no mechanism of The HSR and Bharatmala projects In the context of rural electricity, reviewing the budgetary performance, were announced in September and the focus is shifting from village- not just financially, but in actual October 2017 respectively. (Of course, level connectivity to household-level outcomes achieved with an analysis the Bharatmala is, in many ways, a connectivity. In terms of sanitation, of the causes. The annual economic modified version of the earlier National though the focus is on building toilets, survey is at best a document that Highways Development Project.) full effectiveness can be achieved only looks at performance in an aggregate Such conceptualization provides more by changing the behavior to increase manner, albeit in different sub sectors. stability and direction, rather than usage. This needs ‘marketing’ like Budgets tend to focus on political being buffeted by varying annual efforts. rhetoric, often repeating the same demands. Inter-sectoral Issues activities. For example, the railway In spite of projectising, there are station development and the new However, a related challenge domains where we falter. For example, airports development have been is one of examining inter-sectoral the BharatNet project (the earlier repeated in many successive budgets. implications. For example, it is not National Optical Fibre Network), While earlier budgets had schemes clear whether building and connecting which is to provide broadband like Setu Bharatam (to remove level more airports is the way to go, given connectivity to every Gram Panchayat, crossings on National Highways), has had implementation issues, the improving road connectivity. More Special Unit for Transportation causing significant delays in timelines. airports will reduce the catchment per Research and Analytics (SUTRA) Part of the problem was due to the airport, reducing frequency of service and Special Railway Establishment implementation being ‘handed over’ and thus putting the overall viability for Strategic Technology and Holistic to public sector undertakings, which in question. For example, Hubbali and Advancement (SRESHTA), it is did not have this as a priority. Belagavi are less than 100 kilometers difficult to find the state of progress of apart with excellent road connectivity, these activities vis-a-vis their original In the context of rural infrastructure, but still wish to have modern airports intent. the PMGSY has been one of the most with just a couple of flightsa day each. YOJANA March 2018 57 It would take under two hours to reach Budget for the Railways either airport from their catchment. As In keeping with the Government’s focus on strengthening the Railways a comparison, there are many parts in network in the country the General Budget 2018-19 has enhanced the Bengaluru where reaching the airport allocation for the Ministry. Railways’ Capex for the year 2018-19 has been would take more than two hours. An pegged at Rs.1,48,528 crore. A large part of this will be devoted to capacity overall approach to air connectivity by creation. 18,000 kilometers of doubling, third and fourth line works and 5000 integrating roads, and keeping a focus kilometers of gauge conversion would augment capacity and transform almost on access time rather than distance the entire network into Broad Gauge 4000 kilometers of railway network are would be the way to go. For example, to be commissioned for electrification during 2017-18. in hilly areas, airports closer to one 12000 wagons, 5160 coaches and approximately 700 locomotives are being another may still be okay. procured during 2018-19, and the work on Eastern and Western dedicated Another inter-sectoral domain Freight Corridors is on going. A major programme has been initiated to is that of intermodal connectivity strengthen infrastructure at the Goods sheds and fast track commissioning of between the metro and the railways. private sidings. Bengaluru and Delhi are examples The Finance Minister assured that adequate funds will be available under where such connectivity has as of now Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh. Over 3600 kms of track renewal is targeted been compromised, leading to poor during 2018-19. There will be increasing use of technology like ‘‘Fog Safe’’ service quality for customer transfer, and ‘‘Train Protection and Warning System’’. 4267 unmanned level crossings and resulting in reduced demand. It in the broad gauge network will be eliminated in the next two years. does make one reflect on the need for basic smartness, rather than what is Modern train-sets with the state-of-the-art amenities and features are being implied by ‘smart’ cities. designed at Integrated Coach Factory, Perambur. The first such train-set will be commissioned during 2018-19. Redevelopment of 600 major railway There are inter-sectoral issues stations is being taken up by Indian Railway Station Development Co. Ltd. between energy and transportation. All stations with more than 25000 footfalls will have escalators. All railway The government has demonstrated stations and trains will be progressively provided with wi-fi.