West Bengal, Kerala get prominence in India’s Budget 2021

As West Bengal goes to the polls two months from now, Union Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman made sure that Budget 2021 gives prominence to the state.

Sitharaman read out her Union Budget 2021-22 speech wearing a ‘laal paad’ saree popular in Bengal, quoted Nobel laureate and Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore and announced a highway project of Rs 25,000 crore.

Sitharaman proposed the highway infrastructure work including building 8,500-km of highways by March 2022. The total allocation for highway construction in Bengal has been proposed at Rs 25,000 crore. Other poll-bound states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam also received highway projects but Bengal featured prominently.

The BJP ruled Indian Government has been engaged in a bitter war of words with the Trinamool Congress, which is eyeing to retain power in West Bengal as the state gets ready for the assembly polls in April-May.

Along with W.Bengal, Kerala is also going for polls this year. FM allocated Rs 65,000 crore for road and highway projects in Kerala. She also announced that the work would begin soon on the Phase-II of Kochi Metro Railway which would be 11.5km long and cost Rs 1,957.05 crore.

To further augment road infrastructure, Sitharaman said the government would award 8,500 kms of road projects and an additional 11,000 kms of national highway corridors by March 2022. She also announced Rs 18,000-crore scheme to augment public transport in urban areas, adding that more economic corridors are also being planned.

“I have also provided an enhanced outlay of Rs 1,18,101 crore for Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, of which, Rs 1,08,230 crore is for capital – the highest ever provided,” she said.

Last month, Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Minister Nitin Gadkari had said NHAI has a target to build 60,000 km of highways in the next five years, including 2,500 km of express highways.

These include 9,000 km of economic corridors and 2,000 km each of strategic border roads and coastal roads. Besides these, 100 tourist destinations and 45 towns would be connected through highways.