Kshitish Nadgauda, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Louis Berger International-Asia, gives his take on the expectations from the upcoming Budget 2022:
“Our expectations representative of our industry are that the priority infrastructure schemes identified in PM Gati Shakti and the National Infrastructure Pipeline should be effectively implemented starting in 2022. There should be increased budgetary allocations for Metro Rail projects in Tier 1 and 2 cities, railways including high-speed and semi-high-speed intercity links, highways and expressways, ports and regional airports towards the much-needed development of the nation while concurrently achieving the necessary economic growth and generation of employment.”
“A suitable framework should be established in the Budget for funding such programs and projects through debt financing through Development Financial Institutions, Infrastructure NBFCs, long-term investors such as domestic and foreign pension funds (FPFs), sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), etc. While healthcare infrastructure has recently received a significant boost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government needs concurrently to focus on boosting infrastructure spends across other sectors as well. Finally, the Government should also focus on the de-densification of urban settlements through low-cost housing programs and through the establishment of greenfield development nodes with state-of-the-art infrastructure away from existing urban centers.”