Promising infrastructure and investment push

C Sasidhar, managing director, Krishnapatnam Port Company Limited

Budget 2016 reflects a very promising infrastructure and investment push with increased budgetary allocation for key infrastructure areas such as roads, railways and ports.

The nine pillars laid down in the budget provide a holistic approach for bringing about a socio-economic transformation while reinvigorating the infrastructure sector through Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

Implementation of Indian Customs Single Window Project and initiatives to reduce the cargo release time and the transaction costs of EXIM trade will bring in the required boost in terms of ease of operations while also making the sector more attractive.

Also the Sagarmala project,  which has already been rolled, out was a very welcome move for the port sector and it is now all set to receive a fresh boost with the current budget now planning to develop new greenfield ports both on the eastern and western coasts of the country with a budget allocation of Rs800 crore.