Govt clears three stalled infra projects worth Rs 25,000 crore

19 Nov 2011 Evaluate

The government has given in-principal approval for three infrastructure projects involving an investment of Rs 25,000 crore, these infra projects are cleared by the inter ministerial committee led by the finance ministry. The three projects, which have been cleared, are L&T Metro Hyderabad, Hinduja Power, Vishakhaptanam and Seembari Expressway, Andhra Pradesh. The L&T Metro Hyderabad is the biggest projects which involves investment of Rs 16,000 crore.

Financial services secretary DK Mittal said that India Inc had earlier asked the government to look into projects, which were stuck because of various issues. The idea is to put these projects on the fast track and bank loans, which have been sanctioned, should be disbursed for implementation. Till now, the government has discussed around 24 projects worth around Rs 2,09,000 crore. However, as of now, panel has only discussed projects where bank loans are above Rs 1,500 crore, and in next stage, panel will discuss loan above Rs 1,000 crore.

Several key infra projects from sectors like power, mining, real estate and cement are stuck as the banks have rejected to disburse loans due to pending land acquisition, environmental and rehabilitation clearances. The government’s move to fast track these infra projects will also clear way for banks to start lending and boost slowing credit growth.    

For the current financial year, the Reserve Bank of India has already lowered the credit target from 19% to 18%. Further the fast track clearance will also help in reducing the possibility of some loans turning bad loans. By the end of March 2011, the gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of PSBs stood at Rs 71,047 crore.  

The government is pushing banks to accelerate lending at a time when credit growth is slowing because of the ongoing economic crisis and high interest rates. However, banks are concerned over increasing NPAs, as any of these infra projects turns into NPA, it may have chain reaction. The ministry of finance is also concerned over the downgrading of the Indian banking sector by the credit rating agency Moody’s.

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