India needs to spend Rs 50 lakh crore over the next five years on infrastructure, says Crisil
The global ratings agency said India will first have to tackle the problem of stressed assets to be able to spend such large amounts of money.
India needs to spend Rs 3,000 crore a day, or at least Rs 50 lakh crore over the next five years to build its infrastructure sustainably, global ratings agency Crisil said in a report on Thursday.
“India will see an expenditure 56% more than the Rs 37 lakh crore projected spend between fiscals 2013 and 2017,” Ashu Suyash, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Crisil, said while unveiling the agency’s Infrastructure Yearbook 2017, The Economic Times reported.
But, to be able to spend such a large amount of money, India will have to solve the problem of stressed assets in banking, the report said. Crisil’s report comes two days after the Centre announced it will build 34,800 km of roads under the BharatMala project, which includes an investment of Rs 5.35 lakh crore over five years.
The report released on Thursday also pointed out that poor preparation for projects, badly planned contracts and too much dependence on bank-led financing have spawned the “twin balance-sheet problem” of indebted developers and stressed assets in the banking sector.
The agency also unveiled the Crisil InfraInvex, an “investability” index to track, measure and assess the development and investment attractiveness of infrastructure sectors.