Budget 2020: Transport gets ₹1.7 trillion, more commercialisation of highways

MUMBAI: The government has allocated ₹1,70,000 crore as budgetary allocation for the transport sector for 2020-21. With this including investment in roads, railways, shipping, ports and civil aviation, the allocation has come far below expectations, the total allocation has risen a modest 8% from the 2019 budgetary allocation of ₹1,57,000 crore.

The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman , in her budget speech, said the government wants to encourage the National Highways Authority of India, the nodal agency for public road construction, to pursue “greater commercialization of highways to raise finance”. Sitharaman propose to sell 12 lots of bundles of public roads of 6000 km before 2024, possibly under the toll-operate-transfer model or as an infrastructure investment trust, to raise finance against operating road assets.