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(Current Affairs) What Government Is Doing To Develop India's Infrastructure ?

What Government Is Doing To Develop India's Infrastructure ?

The Eleventh Five Year "plan recognizes that adequate, cost effective and quality infrastructure is a pre-requisite for sustaining the growth momentum and that investment in physical infrastructure would have to be increased from about 5 per cent of GDP during the Tenth Plan (2002-07) to 9 per cent Recognizing that improvement of GDP by the terminal year of the eleventh Plan period (2007-12)
Infrastructure development is capital intensive and requires huge resources. However. public resources available for investment in physical infrastructure are limited, as social sectors have a priority in the allocation of budgetary resources. The strategy for the Eleventh Plan encourages private sector participation directly as well as through various forms of PPPs where desirable and feasible. It is expected that as in the case of telecommunications sector, competition and private investment will not only expend capacity but also improve the quality of service in Indian infrastructure.
The Eleventh Plan has al made an assessment of the deficit various infrastructure Sectors and set targets for these sectors.

Infrastructure – Deficit and Eleventh Plan Physical Targeys
Sector	Deficit	Eleventh Plan Targets
Roads/Highways	65590 km of NH comprise of only 2% of network; carry 40% of traffic; 12.4% 4-laned; 50% 2-lanes; and 38% single-laned	6-lane 6500 km in GQ; 4-lane 6736 km NS-ES; 4-lane 20000 km; 2 lane 20000 km; 1000 km Expressway
Ports	Indequate berths and rail/road connectivity	New capacity: 485 m MT in major ports; 345 m MT in minor ports.
Airport	Inadequate runways, aircraft handling capacity, parking space and terminal buildings	Modernize 4 metro and 35 non-metro airport; 3 greenfield in NER; 7 other greenfield airports
Railways	Old technology; saturated routes; slow speeds (freight: 22kmph; passengers:50 kmph); low payload to tare ratio (2.5)	8132 km new rail; 7148 km guage conversion; modernize 22 stations; dedicated freight corridors.
Power	13.8% peaking deficit; 9.6% energy shortage; 40% transmission and distribution losses; absence of competition	Add78577 MW; access to all rural households
Irrigation	1123 BCM utilizable water resources; yet near crisis in per capita availability and storage; only 43% of net sown area irrigated.	Develop 16 mha major and minor works; 10.25 mha CAD; 2.18 mha flood control
Telecom/IT	Only 18% of market accessed; obsolete hardware; acute human resources' shortages	Reach 600 m subscribers- 200 m in rural areas; 20 m broadband; 40 m Internet

Status of Proposed UMPPs (Ultra Mega Power Project)
UMPP	Power Procurer States	Company	MW	Project Cost (RS. Billion)	Tariff (Rs./ kWh)	Status
Pithead UMPPs
Sasan Madhya Pradesh	Delhi, Haryana, Up, Rajasthan, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand	Reliance Power	3960 (6x660)	160	1.77	PPA signed. Commissioning expected in 11^th / 12^th Plan
Tilaiyadam	Delhi, Punjab, UP, MP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujrat, Maharastra, Bihar and Jharkhand	Reliance Power	4000 (5x800)	160	1.77	PPA signed. Commissioning Expected in 11^th / 12^th Plan
Akaltara Chattisgarh	-	-	4000 (5x800)	150	-	Held up for land and water issues.
Sunderharh, Orissa	-	-	4000 (5x800)	160	-	Coal clock allocated, Land under evalution
Coastal UMPPs
Mundra, Gujrat	Gujrat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana	Tata Power	4000 (5x800)	160	2.26	PPA signed. Commissioning expected in 11^th / 12^th Plan
Krishnapatnam, Madhya Pradesh	Adhra Pradesh, Karnataka, MP and Tamil Nadu	Reliance Power	4000 (5x800)	200	2.33	PPA signed. Commissioning expected in 11^th / 12^th Plan
Girye, Maharashtra	Maharashtra, Mp, Rajasthan, Karnatka and Chhattisgarh	-	4000 (5x800)	160	-	Land issues stalled the project
Tadri, Karnataka	Maharastra, Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka	-	4000 (5x800)	160	-	Land issues stalled the project
Cheyyur	-	-	4000 (5x800)	150	-	4000 (5x800)
Total			35960	1500

Universalize secondary education.
Eradicate all urban slums in 5 yrs.
50% reservation for women in panchayats and urban local bodies.
Add 13,000MW power each year.
Broadband coverage to reach every panchayat in 3 years, 40% rural teledensity in 5 years.
Enact Communal Violence Prevention Bill for special action against communal violence
Unique Id card for all citizens in 3yrs.
500 millions skilled people by 2022.
FDI flows to be in banking and insurance. PSU banks to be recapitalized and regular for pension sector.
Reach banks, schools and credit to minorites. Wakf reforms.
Enlarge NREGA, converge other programmes, consolidate flagship programmes.
National Counter-terrorism Center to be, up to counter Naxalities and Insurgents.
Police reforms for participation of citizenry, community policing.

The telecom sector in India has shown tremendous growth in the last few years. The Indian Telecommunications network with 430 million connections (as on March 2009) is the third largest in the world. The sector is growing at a speed of 46-50% during the recent years. Following are csome of the milestones achieved and targets set:

Expansion of Network:-

Number of telephones from 54.63 million on 31.03.2003 to 429.72 million on 31.03.2009.
Wireless subscribers from 13.3 million on 31.03.2003 to 391.76 million on 31.03.2009.
Fixed line subscibers from 41.33 millions on 31.03.2003 to 37.96 million on 31.03.2009.
Broadband subscribers from 0.18 million to 6.22 million during the last 5 years.
Tele density: 36.98% - Rural – 15.11%, Urban 88.84%.
The Government has set a target for providing mobile coverage to 90% geographical area and setting up 500 million connections by the year 2010.

Rural Telephony:-

The fixed and WLL connections in rural areas reached 123.51 million in march 2009 85% of the villages in India have been covered by the Village Public Telephones (VPTs). This is in addition to more than 3 lakh PCOs in villages and 2772 Mobile Gramin Sanchar Sewak Scheme (GSS) – a mobile public Call Office (PCO) service- in 12043 villages. Internet service is being provided by Sanchar Dhabas (Internet Kiosks) in more than 3500 Block Headquarters out of the total 6337 Blocks in the country. The target of 80 millions rural connections by 2010 has already been met during year 2008 itself.

3G & Broadband Wireless Services (BWA):-

The government has decided to auction 3G $ BWA spectrum.Allatment of spectrum has been planned through simultaneously ascending e-auction process by a specialized agency. New players would also be able to bid thus leading to technology innovation, more competition, faster roll out and ultimately greater chice for customers at competitive tariffs. The 3G will allow telecom companies to offer additional value added services. BWA will become a predominant platform for broadband roll out services. It ids also an effective tool for undertaking social initiatives of the Government such as e-education, telemedicine, e-health and e-Governance.
BSNL & MTNL have already launched their 3G services.

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