civil aviation/roads post phenomenal growth during april-may

Monday, July 18, 2005

Civil Aviation and the Roads sectors posted phenomenal growth during April-May 2005 among the infrastructure sectors. The latest Report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, reviewing the performance of the Infrastructure sectors during the two months, says that except net telephony, Fertilizers and Petroleum, all other sectors have also registered significant growth.

The Road sector registered a growth of 25.4 per cent during the period compared with the same period last year i.e. with the upgradation of highways totaling 898 kms. In Civil Aviation, passengers handled at domestic terminals recorded a rise of 19.7 per cent while passengers handled at international terminals 12.6 per cent. Export cargo handled as well as import cargo handled also registered a double digit growth in the Civil Aviation sector with export cargo handling running into 79,641 tonnes while import cargo handling totaled 47,840 tonnes.

In case of Telecom net telephony continued to record a negative trend with addition in switching capacity going down by 41.8 per cent, while landline connections minus 58.8 per cent. Cell phone connections continue to grow with a rise of 14.8 per cent. This is due to surrender of landline connections and preference for cell phones. Thus, net telephony remained a cause for concern, the Report says.

In Petroleum, except natural gas which posted a growth of minimal 1.4 per cent while crude oil production and refinery production going down-slide with minus 1.2 per cent and minus 6.9 per cent. Fertilizers also recorded a lower growth of minus 4.2 per cent with the total production being 2.21 million tonnes.

Cargo handled at major ports went up by 16.6 per cent with the total being 68.13 million tones. The same way, revenue earning rail freight traffic went up by 14 per cent at 107.58 million tones.

Production of cement during the period totaled 24.20 million tonnes indicating a rise of 9.6 per cent while steel production amounted to 6.73 million tones registering a growth of 7.6 per cent. Coal at 61.21 million tonnes showed a growth of 7.9 per cent and Power recorded a rise of 6.5 per cent, with a generation of 103.26 billion units.

Performance wise, all sectors except coal, finished steel, fertilizers and refinery production, have exceeded their targets.

VKS/AN