Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 16.9 per cent increase (against revised estimates) in infrastructure spending to Rs 11.11 trillion for the financial year 2024-25 (FY25) in the Interim Budget on Thursday. This is 11.1 per cent higher than the Budget estimates for FY24, as the Centre is expected to fall short of its FY24 infrastructure spending target of Rs 10 trillion by over Rs 50,000 crore.
Legacy infrastructure sectors, which have been doing the heavy lifting for the Centre in post-Covid Budgets, saw a moderate increase in their allocations. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been allocated capital expenditure of Rs 2.72 trillion in the upcoming financial year, which is merely 2.9 per cent higher than FY24 RE (revised estimates).
