India to invest USD 1 trillion in infrastructure

Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Monday said his country plans to invest USD one trillion in infrastructure projects in the next five years, as it would help the country achieve the desired nine percent growth rate . Addressing a Conference on "challenges and opportunities in public-private partnership in national highways" in New Delhi, Singh said that a fair treatment would be meeted to both private and government players in infrastructure, reported the Indo Asian News Service / IANS/. "Good road infrastructure is crucial to achieving nine percent growth rate, targeted for the next Five Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17), and adequate investment would be made towards that," he said. The PM added, "Infrastructure will play a key role in achieving our growth target of nine percent. Our effort is to double the investment of USD 500 million in the 11th Five Year plan to around USD 1 trillion in the 12th plan." He further stated, "It is also necessary to ensure projects are awarded in a fair and transparent manner to avoid suspicion of favouritism." Speaking on the occasion, the country''s Road Transport and Highways Minister C.P. Joshi said that the government will award contracts under public-private partnership to lay around 7800 km of national highways at an estimated cost of USD 11.1 billion by the end of this year. He furthe said, ''''Contracts worth Rs.21,000 crore have already been awarded in the first four months'''', and voiced hope that the target of 20 km of national highways every day would be met.