Bengal Chamber organises Infrastructure Conclave Shaping India: The Craftsmanship of Infrastructure

Infrastructure sector is a key driver for the Indian economy. India has been spending much more than Rs 1 trillion per annum on infrastructure. India has a vision to become a five trillion dollar economy in the next five years and a ten trillion dollar economy in the next eight years thereafter.

It is estimated that Railway Infrastructure would need an investment of Rs. 50 lakh crores between 2018-2030.  It is therefore proposed to use Public-Private Partnership. Highways construction in the country touched a new high of 30 km per day in 2018-19 through process streamlining.

Also, to double the share of freight transported by coastal shipping and inland waterways there is an urgent need to develop an IT-enabled platform for integrating different modes of transport and promoting multi-modal and digitized mobility.

Deb A Mukherjee, President Designate, The Bengal Chamber, said, “We understand that to achieve the GDP of $5 trillion by 2024-25, infrastructure investment needs to increase proportionately to attain these targets. Bharatmala Pariyojana has been both an enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridors, Industrial corridors, UDAN-RCS, Digital India and Make in India.

Expansion of port capacity has been accorded highest priority under projects like Sagarmala, Project Unnati etc. The investment gaps in the infrastructure would have to be addressed through various innovative approaches with the collaboration of both public and private sector.

There has been a thrust on development of multimodal logistics parks (MMLPs) in the past few years to boost multimodality and integration of logistics services. To deliberate discuss and provide valuable suggestions on the issues of the field we have a impressive list of key speakers who will give their expert opinions”, stated Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, President Designate, The Bengal Chamber."

Speaking at the program, Abhishek Chandra, IAS, Director (Sagarmala) Ministry of Shipping, Government of India, stated, "Sagarmala program objectives are Reduce logistics cost for EXIM and domestic trade with minimal infrastructure investment Double share of Domestic waterways (inland & coastal) in the modal mix from 6% to 12% by 2025 Lowering Logistics Costs of bulk commodities by locating future industrial capacities near the coast Optimizing time and cost of EXIM containers movement Create jobs and bridge skill gap in ports and maritime sector.

Under the Sagarmala program 196 project of Rupees 295128 crores are under implementation  and 125 projects of Rupees 31445 crore have been completed while 37 are under tendering. Coastal shipping traffic has picked up grown since 2015-16. In 2018-19 the growth of coastal cargo has been has been 14.3% while the growth of EXIM cargo has been 4.9% At the start of Sagarmala Programme coastal cargo was ~12% of total cargo volume while in 2018-19 this has grown to ~20%  . The Action Plan to increase in volume of coastal cargo from 120 MTPA to ~337 MTPA by 2025 has been developed in association with Asian Development Bank (ADB).”

S Balaji Arunkumar, IRTS, Dy. Chairman, KDS, Kolkata Port Trust, stated, “ As far as infrastructure is concerned , port plays a vital role.Port infrastructure in western side of India is far ahead than eastern side. But last five years eastern sector specially Kolkata port has improved substantially in cargo shipping.”.

Sutirtha Bhattacharya, IAS (Retd.), Chairman, West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission,  stated, "Primary definition of Infrastructure is that which   benefits  people , that which brings about equity, which helps other sectors to grow .We must articulate our vision in terms of infrastructure requirement.The role of chamber from such chambers is to formulate the vision and carry the vision tot he decision makers."