Remove all bottlenecks for investment in infrastructure: Chaturvedi

Bhubaneswar, Dec 3 (UNI) Union Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi today called for removal of all bottlenecks to create a conducive atmosphere for encouraging investment in infrastructure.

''We cannot hope to be a world power if infrastructure expansion does not happen rapidly in the next five years'', Mr Chaturvedi said while addressing the 40th convocation of Utkal University.

The cabinet secretary said an important feature of the programme was launching major policy initiative for investments in this sector.

The need of the hour is to remove the bottlenecks and create an environment in which investments in these sectors would be further encouraged, Mr Chaturvedi remarked.

He said infrastructure facilities at airport, shipping, roads, telecom and power required urgent attention. With expansion of trade, roads are clogged with more cars and the airport cannot handle the explosive number of air passengers, the Union Cabinet Secretary remarked.

The power sector, he said was not expanding fast enough or modernising rapidly to meet the growing requirements of the economy.

A large expansion in international trade has led to huge requirement at ports, leading to congestion, ship wait for longer periods and container terminals failed to evacuate faster.

This problem was highlighted when we made imports of wheat and fertilizers for meeting our demand, he added.

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