Economic Survey 2025: Roads, Power, Coal, Lead Infra Performance Amid Election Impact On Capex

Capital expenditure by the union government on major infrastructure sectors increased at a trend rate of 38.8% from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2024, the Economic Survey stated. Within infrastructure, roads, power, coal, and mines led the performance.

Last year, capital expenditure saw an almost three-fold increase, relative to FY20 levels. The major beneficiaries of this step-up are key foundational assets like roads and railways.

The pace of the Union government’s capital expenditure in major infrastructure sectors was affected during the first quarter of FY25, largely due to the model code of conduct during the general elections. Hence, a year-on-year comparison may not be appropriate for Q1FY25, the survey noted.

On an average, ministries related to infrastructure sectors utilised 60% of the budgeted capex during April-November 2024.

National Monetisation Pipeline, which was launched in August 2021 and for the period FY22 to FY24, saw transactions of Rs 3.86 lakh crore in terms of accruals or private investments completed under the core asset monetisation, compared to a target of Rs 4.30 lakh crore.

Sector-wise, roads, power, coal, and mines led the performance, supported by market-tested models and reforms. For fiscal 2025, the aggregate monetisation target is set at Rs 1.91 lakh crore

Rail transport sector, encompassing Indian Railways is the fourth largest network in the world under single management. Between April and October 2024, 17 new pairs of Vande Bharat trains were introduced to the network, and 228 coaches were produced, the survey noted.

Despite such earnest efforts by the union government and quite a few state governments and public sector undertakings supplementing these efforts with increased capex, there is still a significant unmet demand for infrastructure development, the survey said.

"The efforts of the Union Government would need to be supplemented with wholehearted acceptance of the need for public-private partnerships in infrastructure across the country. Equally important, the private sector must reciprocate, too," the survey said.