Minister for MSMEs and road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday said the recent steps announced by the government to boost liquidity and credit flows would also bolster “the purchasing power of the people via employment creation and help accelerate the wheels of the economy”. The minister’s comments came at a time when there is a widespread notion that the economic stimulus package unveiled by the government is skewed towards supply-side steps, while measures to augment people’s incomes via tax cuts or transfers of money would have been more opportune.
Given the ambitious target to award national highway projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore over the next couple of years, the minister said renewed attempts were being made to raise money from abroad to execute the massive projects. “We have decided to tap more FDI (for highway construction). Also, foreign pension funds and insurance funds are being approached, apart from multilateral bodies like ADB, World Bank and others,” the minister said.
