|
Almost all Infrastructure Sectors recorded higher growth in the first 11 months of the last financial year i.e. between April 2004 to February 2005. The only exceptions were provision of new landline telephone connections in the Telecom Sector and rehabilitation of roads and construction of bridges etc. in the Road Sector.
Civil Aviation topped with, double digit growth in all its fields, the highest increase of 25.8 per cent in the handling of import cargo. It is followed by handling of passengers at domestic terminals with a growth of 23.9 per cent followed by 14.3 per cent hike in passenger handling at international terminals and 12.6 per cent rise in export cargo handling.
The second best performance came from the Telecom Sector with a 21.1 per cent rise in addition of switching capacity and a 13.9 per cent growth in cell phone connections. The only area of concern was provision of new landline connections, which suffered mainly due to surrender and preference for cell phones.
The Road Sector also did very well with a 20.3 per cent increase in the upgradation of highways, though showed a negative trend in rehabilitation of roads and construction of bridges.
Another Infrastructure Sector that recorded a double-digit growth was Ports with a 10.9 per cent increase over the corresponding period of the previous year, handling 344.64 million tonnes of cargo. Revenue earning Rail freight traffic also recorded impressive growth of 7.6 per cent handling 541.97 million tonnes of goods.
Power, Coal registered nearly 6 per cent growth, while it was slightly above 3 per cent in case of Steel.
Production of Fertilizers during the period totalled 14.18 million tonnes representing a growth of 6.8 per cent, while Cement was higher by 6.5 per cent at 119.03 million tonnes.
In Petroleum, while refining production registered a 5 per cent growth at 116.22 million tonnes, the growth in crude oil production was hardly 2 per cent at 31.06 million tonnes.
According to the latest Report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on the review of Infrastructure performance, all except Power, Coal, net addition in switching capacity, provision of new cell phone connections, fertilizers, crude oil and refinery production, recorded higher growth in February 2005 compared with the same month last year. Also, all sectors except Power, Finished Steel, Fertilizers and Cement exceeded their targets for the month. Speaking of the target for the 11 month period, all sectors except Finished Steel, Fertilizers, Cement and Road exceeded their targets.
VKS/SR
|
