Steel• Rising demand, fiscal incentives like customs duty cut helped steel prices firm up during first three quarters of current fiscal; steel utilities to fetch better price for their produce• Price rise stronger in case of flat products, where most key items saw marked rise in October 2006• Impressive growth with year-on-year increase of 9.7 % in production. Total carbon steel production touched 35.65 million tonnes, domestic consumption: 31.45 %, up 9.8 %. • Exports grew nearly 11 % at 3.50 million tonnes• Improved operational parameters and modernisation of steel plants has increased competitiveness of sector globallyRoads• Problems in land acquisition, removal of structures, shifting of utilities and law and order in some states problems affecting growth of sector• Progress in road infrastructure will depend on removing law and order problems in some states and monitoring the performance of errant contractors.• Constraints faced in timely completion of National Highway Development Project (NHDP) include delays in land acquisition, removal of structures and shifting of utilities• Nearly 93% of work on Golden Quadrilateral completed by November 2006; North-South and East-West corridors to be completed by December 2009.• Outlook in entire infrastructure sector will depend on how much investment is facilitated in it. Telecom• Forecasts 65 cr phone connections by 2012, including 66 million wired and 584 million wireless connections, more than tripling in size from current level. • Current connections 196 million, expected to be 200 million by February-end• Survey seeks provision of 200 million rural telephony connections to significantly boost rural teledensity to 25 % from the current level of 1.7%. • Calls for broadband connectivity to be available on demand without speed limit, connections to be provided to health centres, schools, panchayats. • Number of broadband and internet subscribers will reach 20 million and 40 million respectively by 2010. • Number of Internet subscribers grew 25%, broadband users grew only to 1.32 million in 2005-06 from 0.18 million. Ports• Slow cargo evacuation, poor hinterland connectivity undermines efficacy of ports — imperative to develop multi-modal system to enhance competitiveness• Recommends coordinating rail and road networks to ensure good connectivity between ports and hinterland.• Till October 2006, cargo handled by major ports saw 6.6% growth, down from 10.4% in corresponding seven months previous fiscal.• Areas to be opened up to private sector: cargo-handling berths, dry docks, container terminals, warehousing, ship repair facilities. • All port trusts have set up groups with representatives from NHAI, railways, state governments to prepare plans for improving rail-road connectivity • Annual aggregate cargo handling capacity of major ports increased from 397.5 MTPA in 2004-05 to 456.20 MTPA in 2005-06, average turnaround time rose from 3.4 days to 3.5 days in 2005-06. • Average output per ship berth-day improved from 9,240 tonnes in 2004-05 to 9,267 tonnes in 2005-06. • Impressive growth of 13.6% per annum in container traffic during five years ending 2005-06.SEZs• SEZ policy need safeguards to allay apprehensions• Acquisition of prime agriculture land could have “serious implications on food security”; there could be “misuse” by developers for real estate.• Apprehensions about revenue loss and generation of little new activity as there may be relocation of industries to SEZs to take advantage of tax sops.• Fears of large-scale land acquisition by developers, leading to displacement of farmers with meagre compensation• SEZs could lead to uneven growth, adding to regional inequalities but apprehensions could be addressed through appropriate policies
