Construction carries Rs.3.3 lakh-cr biz avenues; ICRA

The heightened focus on infrastructure creation across the country is set to create business opportunity worth a whopping Rs 3.3 lakh crore for construction sector players in the current financial years. The government had in this year‘s budget allocated Rs 5.97 lakh crore for infrastructure capital outlay by state-owned entities, a 21 per cent jump over last fiscal. A majority of this infrastructure capital expenditure – around 80 per cent -- is to be implemented by five ministries or government departments including Power, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Railways, Road Transport & Highways and Housing and Urban Affairs. A significant part of this will be related to the construction sector business, Vice President at research and ratings agency ICRA, Shubham Jain said. While Indian Railways is working on its plan to incur capital expenditure of Rs 8.56 lakh crore on infrastructure creation till 2019 and also roads and highways sector will witness a major capex of Rs 5.35 lakh crore under the Bharatmala Pariyojana alone. With the government‘s emphasis on infrastructure projects, public sector investments are expected to increase in the medium to long term, he added.