The `1 million-crore infra push

The planned 100 critical transport infrastructure projects in ports, coal, steel, fertiliser and food grains sector will be taken up on a priority basis with investment of `75,000 crore including `15,000 crore from private sector in PPP mode.

In line with Government’s vision on promoting clean energy, the budget focused on supporting domestic manufacturing and the development of the electric vehicle ecosystem in the country.

Accordingly, customs duty exemption was extended to import of capital goods and machinery needed for manufacture of lithium-ion cells for batteries used in electric vehicles. Lower cost of batteries will make electric vehicle’s more affordable.

“The Union Budget strove to achieve a fine balance between fiscal consolidation and supporting the economy through higher capital expenditures,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research, (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.

“The big picture policy support that we saw in the budget was also about creating the transmission line from Leh-Ladakh to bring clean power, solar power from there into the main parts of the country. Also, the support through viability gap funding for battery storage of nearly 4000MW of ours will also help in turning up clean energy into 24 hours clean energy solution,” Dr Praveer Sinha, MD, Tata Power has said.

“The Finance Minister presented a balanced budget which had lot of initiatives and programs to push the infrastructure sector. The programs were typically in areas of clean energy, renewable energy, battery storage, pump storage opportunity and also the longterm view as to how we will move towards 2030 with 500GW renewable capacity. It is heartening to see that the government is also focused on decarbonizing the economy and I am sure with all these announcements of the government in the budget, we will be able