India is pumping additional Rs 25,000 crore in road, rail and power to boost economy

The Indian government is planning to give an additional push of Rs 25,000 crore to roads, railways and power sectors and boost growth.

The ministries are in talks with the finance ministry, which has asked them to come up with the final list of projects that would require more allocation.

The road ministry had sought Rs 15,000 crore as additional allocation, a senior official with the ministry told ET.

The target for highway construction this fiscal is set at 15,000 km, which comes to 41 km a day.

This ambitious target will cost the ministry around Rs 1.5 lakh crore. But, the total allocation that the road ministry got was Rs 57,000 crore in Budget 2016.

The ministry hopes to raise the remaining amount through funding from Life Insurance Corporation and Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and by leasing out its completed projects to private equity firms and pension funds.

A road ministry official told ET that the additional allocation would be used for four laning of the present highways.

The railway sector is likely to get a boost of Rs 12,000 crore, which has a target of building 7 km of rail lines per day.

"The additional gross budgetary support (GBS) is likely to be used for clearing stuck projects, upgrading and modernizing the safety of railway lines and decongesting some of its routes. Some high traction electrification projects could also be taken up," a senior railway board official told ET.

The power ministry is hopeful of getting Rs 3,000 crore.