India Infrastructure Research tracked a total of 568 ongoing infrastructure projects across seven sectors – power, railways, water supply and sanitation, urban rail, airports, roads and ports. These projects are worth at least Rs 17.21 trillion. In terms of project cost, power projects at 31 per cent have the maximum share (Rs 5.4 trillion) which has been allocated for the execution of 73 projects. The railway sector (273 projects) has the second highest share of investment at 30 per cent (Rs 5.1 trillion).
Brownfield versus greenfield projects
With respect to the type of projects across the sectors under consideration, 56 per cent are brownfield expansion projects and the remaining 44 per cent are greenfield projects. In absolute numbers, the railway sector has 112 ongoing greenfield capacity additions, followed by the power sector with 53 ongoing greenfield projects. In the port sector, 36 greenfield projects are being developed. In the airport sector too several greenfield airport projects are being developed due to capacity being saturated at existing airports.
Sector-wise status
According to an analysis of ongoing power projects, about 63,592 MW of generation capacity will be added in the coming years. Of this, 8,866 MW will be added through large hydropower plants, while 54,726 MW of capacity will be added through thermal power projects (TPPs). In railways, 111 projects (worth Rs 1.87 trillion) involve 15,616 km of new line construction,
followed by 108 line doubling projects (Rs 1.54 trillion) for 16,661 km of rail network. Other projects being developed in the sector involve gauge conversion, electrification and station redevelopment. In the port sector, 76 ongoing projects have been tracked. These projects include the development of cargo berths and container terminals, among other projects, at an investment of Rs 2.16 trillion. The urban rail sector has 57 monorail and metro rail projects. Once completed these are expected to add a length of 635.55 km to the urban rail network at an investment of Rs 1.92 trillion.
In the road sector, about 3,337 km length is being developed under 58 projects with an investment of Rs 1 trillion. In the water supply and sanitation sector, 20 ongoing projects have been tracked, entailing an investment of Rs 1 trillion. Segment-wise, 11 projects pertain to the expansion of water supply capacity, seven projects involve the setting up of additional sewerage treatment capacity and two projects involve the laying of stormwater drains. Overall, these projects are expected to create over 3,500 million litres per day of capacity and around 1,359 km of pipelines.
The aviation sector, another key sector, has about 11 projects under construction. These projects are being developed at an investment of Rs 517 billion.
Further, with respect to the road sector, 26 projects involving 423 km of four-laning works are ongoing, followed by 22 projects for developing 419 km of flyovers.