Vol. II / Issue 8
MARCH 2020
Managing Editor’s Message
Mamta Shah Managing Editor Vinod Shah Head - Communications Surya Prakash Circulation In-charge Anushka Khare Associate Editor Naomi Pandya Digital Media & Design Executive Krishtina D’Silva Sr. News Editor (Global News) Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine is published bi-monthly by:
Urban Transport News F-35, First Floor, Pankaj Grand Plaza, Mayur Vihar Phase-I, New Delhi-110091 Tel: 011-4248 4505, +91-9716 4545 05 E-mail: editor@urbantransportnews.com Web: www.urbantransportnews.com Subscriptions: Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine is sent without obligation to professionals and key opinion leaders working in urban transport industry in India and other countries. However, publisher reserves the right to limit the number of copies. Cover Price: Print ₹ 250.00, Digital- ₹100.00 Annual: Print ₹ 1800.00, Digital: ₹ 500.00 All subscriptions payable in advance. Print circulation available in India only. © All rights reserved. Contents of this publication may not be reproduced without written consent of the publisher. For reprint, circulation in outside India, please contact: editor@urbantransportnews.com Edited and published by Mrs. Mamta Shah, Managing Editor & CEO from F-35, First Floor, Pankaj Grand Plaza, Mayur Vihar Phase I, New Delhi-110091, India and printed at Printpack Electrostat, G-2/56, Eros Apartment, Nehru Place, New Delhi - 110019.
ISSN 2581-8023 Disclaimer: The facts and opinions expressed by the authors/contributors here do not reflect the views of editorial team or editorial board of Urban Transport News/Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine. WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM
Dear Readers, Transport infrastructure is the backbone for economic growth and sustainability. India’s urgent need for infrastructure development both basic and advanced requires considerable investments and support from the Government; and the Union Budget announcements of 2020-21 by Union Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman seem to provide impetus to enable further development of transport infrastructure in the coming year. Keeping in line with the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) which set the context for the budget expectations this year, the budget also stresses on resource mobilization through private sector participation and asset monetization. The Budget speech re-iterated that transport infrastructure investment and development forms part of the main set of priorities of the Government, with a total outlay of Rs 1,69,637 crores for 2020-21. Roads & Highways and Shipping have been key beneficiaries in terms of percentage increase with their budgets increased by 10.6% and 18.2% increase over FY20 outlay. In absolute terms allocation to Roads & Highways has been increased by Rs 8,807 crores and Railways has been increased by Rs 2,248 crores.
The spend on shipping and ports sector has increased marginally in absolute value terms compared to FY20. However, one of the crucial announcement in the Budget was regarding corporatizing at least one major port and listing on the stock market. While the Union Budget addressed some pressing issues, announcements related to other issues such as Electric Vehicles, Urban Mobility and innovative financing mechanisms such as Value Capture Financing could have helped some of the other concerns regarding the sector. In all, the Budget announcements seem to uphold the need-of-the-hour of infrastructure development in the country. They seem to provide the required impetus to the economy, which shall hopefully have the desired multiplier effect. However, the conversion of these announcements in to reality and the subsequent impact will have to be monitored regularly at the highest level. In this special edition, we have tried to provide in-depth analysis on Union Budget 2020-21 and its impact on transport infrastructure sector in India. Kindly share your valuable feedback so that we can improve and provide more useful information to our readers in future editions. Happy reading! Mamta Shah Managing Editor editor@urbantransportnews.com MARCH 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure
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