Infrastructure

• Highest ever allocation towards capital expenditure: A sharp increase in capital expenditure is proposed at 5.54 lakh crore, from Rs 4.39 lakh crore in 2021. 
• National Infrastructure Pipeline expanded to 7,400 projects. 217 projects worth over INR 1 lakh crore completed under National Infrastructure Pipeline. 
• Government has committed INR 1.97 lakh crore for PLI schemes covering 13 sectors.
• Enhancing India’s textiles competitiveness globally, alongside PLI, the scheme for Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel Parks (MITRAs) will be rolled out creating world class infrastructure with plug and play facilities. 7 mega textile parks to be established in 3 years.
• Government to support the development of a world-class fintech hub at GIFT, investor charter to be introduced.
• Allocation to rural infrastructure development increased to INR 40,000 crore in next fiscal, up from INR 30,000 crore.
• Policies to make it easy for foreign investors to invest in India's infrastructure projects. Proposal to make dividend payments to REIT (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and InvITs (Infrastructure Investment Trusts) exempt from Tax Deducted at Source (TDS).

Road & Highways Infrastructure

• By March 2021, an additional 8,500 Kilometers (KMs) of National Highways will be awarded and works on 11,500 KMs of National Highway corridor will be completed this year. Planned economic corridors include: 
  • INR 1.03 lakh crore for development of 3,500 KMs of National Highway works in Tamil Nadu, including Madurai-Kollam Corridor.
  • INR 65,000 crore for development of 1,100 KMs of National Highways works in Kerala, including 600 KMs of Mumbai-Kanyakumari Corridor.
  • INR 25,000 crore for development of 675 KMs of Highway work in West Bengal, including upgradation of existing Kolkata – Siliguri Road. 
  • 1,300 km in Assam in the next 3 years.
• Voluntary Vehicle Scrapping Policy: Vehicles to undergo fitness test at automatic fitness centres on a voluntary basis. All private vehicles beyond 20 years and commercial vehicles older than 15 years old will have to undergo fitness test.
• National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) sponsored InvIT to be launched with 5 operational toll roads.
• Centre to provide INR 18,000 crore for public buses.
• Advanced Traffic management system with speed radars, variable message signboards, GPS enabled recovery vans will be installed in all new four and six lane highways.
• Major Expressways/Corridors:
• Delhi-Mumbai Expressway: Remaining 260 km will be awarded before 31st March 2021.
• Bengaluru – Chennai Expressway: 278 KM will be initiated in the current financial year. Construction will begin in 2021-22.
• Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor: 210 KM corridor will be initiated in the current financial year. Construction will begin in 2021-22.
• Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway: 63 KM expressway providing an alternate route to NH 27 will be initiated in 2021-22.
• Chennai – Salem corridor: 277 KM expressway will be awarded and construction would start in 2021-22.
• Raipur-Vishakhapatnam: 464 km passing through Chhattisgarh, Odisha and North Andhra Pradesh will be awarded in the current year. Construction will start in 2021-22.
• Amritsar-Jamnagar: Construction will commence in 2021-22.
• Delhi –Katra: Construction will commence in 2021-22.

Railways

• Railways to monetize dedicated fright corridor assets for operations and maintenance after commissioning.
• INR 1.10 lakh crore outlay for railways, of which Rs 1.7 lakh crore for capital expenditure
• Central fiscal funding for Kochi Metro, Chennai Metro, Bengaluru Metro, Nagpur Metro and Nashik Metro projects.
• Metrolite/Metroneo systems requiring lower outlay and higher comfort and convenience to be deployed.
• National Rail Plan 2030: Create a future ready railway system to bring down the logistics cost of industry at the core of the ‘Make in India’ strategy.
• Western Dedicated Freight Corridor and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor to be commissioned by June 2022. Sonnagar-Dankuni section to be implemented through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
• Total broad-gauge network electrified to reach 72% of the entire route length up from 65% in the previous year.
• Introduction of modern Vistadome Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches for a safer travel experience.
• Indigenously produced cutting edge anti-collision system on high density routes to reduce manual errors.

Ports and Shipping

• Seven projects worth more than INR 2,000 crore in PPP mode for ports.
• Move towards privatisation of major ports.
• Indian companies to be given subsidy in global tenders under scheme for promoting flagging of merchant ships in India.
• Recycling of ships to be doubled by 2024. 90 Ship recycling yards in Alang expected to generate 1.5 lakh jobs for Indian youth. Efforts to bring ships from Japan and Europe.

Power and Energy

• Proposal to create a framework to give consumers alternatives to choose from more than one power distribution company to avoid monopoly of Distribution Companies (DISCOMS).
• Establishment of an independent gas transport system operator for facilitation and coordination of booking of common carrier capacity encompassing all the natural gas pipelines in a non-discriminatory open access basis.
• Power transmission assets of INR 7000 crores to be transferred to Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) InVits.
• INR 3.05 lakh crore outlay for the power sector.
• 100 more cities to be added in the next 3 years to the gas distribution network.
• Ujjwala scheme extended to cover 1 crore more beneficiaries.
• Gas pipeline project to be taken up in Jammu and Kashmir.
• INR 1,000 crore to solar energy corporation of India and INR 1,500 crore to renewable energy development agency.
• Introduction of schemes for DISCOMS for infrastructure creation like pre-paid smart metering and feeder upgradation worth INR 3.05 lakh crores.
• Announcement of Hydrogen Energy Mission to generate hydrogen from green power sources.
• To build up domestic capacity, a phased manufacturing plan for solar cells and solar panels to be notified.
• Duty on solar inverters raised from 5% to 20% and on solar lanterns raised from 5% to 15%, to encourage domestic production.

Housing

• Affordable housing projects will get a tax holiday for one year till 31st March 2022.
• Additional deduction of interest: INR 1.5 lakhs for loans taken up to 31st March for the purchase of affordable housing.
• Affordable rental housing for migrant workers - tax exemption for notified affordable rental housing projects.
   

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Update: On December 3, 2021, Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Infinity Forum on fintech, which among other things will discuss and come up with actionable insights into how technology can be leveraged by the fintech industry for inclusive growth.