The Bengal Chamber organised the BCC&I Infrastructure Summit 2017 on 8th September 2017 at Novotel, Kolkata. This was the second edition of our annual Summit, and the principal objective was to create a platform for all infrastructure stakeholders to discuss, analyze, share best practices and bring forward the opportunities in infrastructure and related logistics sectors, especially the cutting-edge developments of today.

Our objective was to create the largest and most relevant forum in the East so that this Summit becomes the effective platform for infrastructure-related business development discussions and brings the Government together with private Infrastructure players, corporates and consultants.

The Government’s target of Rs 25 trillion (US$ 376.53 billion) investment in infrastructure over a period of three years has been announced. This will include Rs 8 trillion (US$ 120.49 billion) for developing 27 industrial clusters and an additional Rs 5 trillion (US$ 75.30 billion) for road, railway and port connectivity projects. The Road Transport & Highways Ministry has invested around Rs 3.17 trillion (US$ 47.7 billion), while the Shipping Ministry has invested around Rs 80,000 crores (US$ 12.0 billion) in the past two and a half years for building world class highways and shipping infrastructure in the country. A total of 6,604 km out of the 15,000 km target set for national highways in 2016-17 has been constructed by the end of February 2017. However, the future economy would be way different from what we are observing now. The entire demography of the country would change, and automation would create a significant impact on the workforce. With increasing affordable housing and smart cities there would be a significant shift of population from rural to urban side. With the increase in roads and flyovers the usage of cars will also go up. Bottlenecks are NPAs and financial issues, environmental and land issues among others.

Indian power sector is undergoing a significant change that has redefined the industry outlook. Sustained economic growth continues to drive electricity demand in India. The Government of India’s focus on attaining ‘Power for all’ has accelerated capacity addition in the country. At the same time, the competitive intensity is increasing at both the market and supply sides (fuel, logistics, finances, and manpower). Total installed capacity of power stations in India stood at 315,426.32 Megawatt (MW) as of February 28, 2017. The Ministry of Power has set a target of 1,229.4 billion units (BU) of electricity to be generated in the financial year 2017-18, which is 50 BUs higher than the target for 2016-17. The annual growth rate in renewable energy generation has been estimated to be 27 per cent and 18 per cent for conventional energy. The Government has added 8.5 GW of conventional generation capacity during the April 2016-January 2017 period. Under the 12th Five Year Plan, the Government has added 93.5 GW of power generation capacity, thereby surpassing its target of 88.5 GW during the period. The Indian power sector has an investment potential of Rs 15 trillion (US$ 225 billion) in the next 4–5 years, thereby providing immense opportunities in power generation, distribution, transmission, and equipment. The Government of India is taking a number of steps and initiatives like 10-year tax exemption for solar energy projects, etc., in order to achieve India's ambitious renewable energy targets of adding 175 GW of renewable energy, including addition of 100 GW of solar power, by the year 2022. The Government has also sought to restart the stalled hydro power projects and increase the wind energy production target to 60 GW by 2022 from the current 20 GW. There are still ample opportunities to address the growth of this industry. Open access has to be pushed and obviously that will raise the need of a National Market for Electricity. Flexibility of thermal power stations would be instrumental in creating green energy. Incentives should be aligned accordingly. As renewable energy production rises there is a need of more and more investment in the grid. Less gestation period is another important area power generators have to focus on. Power generation, transmission and distribution are the three activities in power industry. Energy is consumed and loss is incurred at every step of the above activities. Among the three activities, loss in power distribution is the maximum as it has grown in an unplanned manner. AT&C (Aggregate Technical and Commercial) Losses have to be reduced.

The Road Transport & Highways Ministry has invested around Rs 3.17 trillion (US$ 47.7 billion), while the Shipping Ministry has invested around Rs 80,000 crores (US$ 12.0 billion) in the past two and a half years for building world class highways and shipping infrastructure in the country. It has been reported that a total of 6,604 km out of the 15,000 km of target set for national highways in 2016-17 has been constructed by the end of February 2017. The Government’s ambitious project of developing inland waterways for transport has also been a focus to improve transport infrastructure in the country. On the other hand, assigning infrastructure status to affordable housing in order to make the infrastructure sector more attractive and robust, was also on the cards. The Government was to announce a benefit of Rs. 2.4 lakh to first-time home buyers who have a taxable income below Rs. 18 lakh a year which would have been effective from January 1, 2017. For a 15-year loan, the value of this benefit would be Rs. 2.2 lakh. However, infrastructure expansion at the macro-level, primarily involving roads, highways, transport and railways, attract a large chunk of India’s GDP. According to a report, India’s infrastructure investment share in total investment has risen from 23.3% in 2007 to 32.5% in 2015. Much of that has come from public sector financing. Infusion of capital is more essential in major sub-sectors like transport services that account for 71% of total investments attracted by the infrastructure sector. Promoting containerization in India would be another important opportunity in the railways sector which would definitely reduce the load on road transport significantly. It is also important to develop the connectivity of the East and North East in order to capture the entire South East Asian market.

The Summit witnessed the deliberations of eminent speakers like Dr. Arup Roy Choudhury, Former CMD, NTPC Ltd;Mr. Dhruv Bhalla, Head - International Business, Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited; Mr. Sudip Datta, COO, IIDC Ltd.; Mr. Anil Kumar Taneja, Director & CEO, IAMCL; Mr. S P Gon Chaudhuri, Chairman, State Solar Power Council, Government of Tripura and Chairman, International Solar Innovation Council; Mr. Prabhjit Kumar Sarkar, Senior Vice President, India Power Corporation Ltd.; Mr. Parikshit Guha, Business Head – East, Larsen and Toubro Limited, Transportation Infrastructure Independent Company; Mr. Rakesh Kumar, General Manager, IIFCL; Mr. S A Rahman, Senior General Manager, Container Corporation of India Ltd. and Mr. Vikas Varshneya, Director, EMT Megatherm Pvt. Ltd.