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According
to the Assocham Report, “Investment plans in
Infrastructure Sector”, investments announced in
infrastructure sector by corporate
India
slumped to Rs 46,328 crore of the current fiscal
(2008-09), registering a sharp dip by 85 per cent.
Growth
in the
key areas of
infrastructure sectors like energy, transport
and communications, is closely related to
national industrial growth. The half-yearly
picture (year,2008-09) of energy support to industrial
growth is mixed. Two important sources of energy
production, Coal and natural gas has shown a positive
growth trend in the first two quarters of the year. The
coal production grew at 7.9 per cent during first half
(H1) 2008, compared to 2.8 per cent in the previous
year. The growth in the production of natural gas also
improved from 2.4 per cent to 4.8 per cent during the
period. But the growth of petroleum production
registerd a negative growth in during both year, 2007
and 2008. The negative growth experienced in crude oil
production during first half of 2007 continued in the
current year. The growth in petroleum refinery
products, at 4.5 per cent, during first half of this
year, was almost half of that in first half 2007. Among
the energy segment, the biggest fall occured in the
electricity generation. The
slackening growth trend in electricity
generation started couple of years ago. The growth in
electricity generation has been on a declining trend
since September 2007, which got intensified in the
current fiscal, reducing the growth achieved during
the first half year of 2008 to 2.6 per cent
compared to 7.6 per cent during 2007. It is the 5.7 per
cent growth in the generation of thermal power that
kept the overall power generation from turning
negative, given the negative growth in the other two
components. As result of this downfall in electricity
generation, the peak deficit in power availability
in the country increased during 2008.
During
the year 2008,the transport sector
has shown a mixed trends as far as the
growth of the movement of goods are concerned.
The revenue-earning freight in the railways recorded
year-on-year increase of 8.5 per cent during first half
of the year 2008, compared to 7.5 per cent during the
same period of 2007. Cargo handled at major ports grew
at 7.2 per cent during first half of 2008 over a 13.7
per cent growth in first half in 2007. During the
period, the growth in port traffic was affected by a
reduced nomination of vessels for POL, thermal coal,
fertilizer raw materials and other cargo, adverse
weather conditions due to monsoon in coastal areas and
dredging problems in some ports. While the growth in
export cargo handled by airports improved, growth in
their import cargo declined steeply during the first
two quarters of the year 2008.
Telecommunication
services sustained the
growth momentum during the first half of the
year 2008. Significant growth in wireless connections,
rural telephone connections and high teledensity, both
in rural and urban segments are the main features of
this vital segment of infrastructure sector.The
year-on-year growth in telephone connectivity has gone
up by 42 per cent in September 2008. Out of this, a
50.8 per cent increase was achieved in the wire-less
connections and 3.1 per cent decline in the wire-line
connections. The growth in rural connections was 78.7
per cent and the growth in urban connections
registerd a 31 per cent growth;
consequently,the ratio of rural to total number
of connections went up from 23.6 per cent in September
2007 to 29.6 per cent in September 2008. The over-all
teledensity improved from 21.8 per cent in September
2007 to 30.6 per cent in September 2008. The rural tele-density
improved from 7.3 per cent to 12.9 per cent while the
urban tele-density improved from 56.9 per cent to 73.0
per cent.
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