India needs $90 billion investment in infrastructure in five years: Kamal Nath

India's infrastructure sector would require investments to the tune of $90 billion over the next five years, minister for surface transport and highways Kamal Nath has said.

"We are seeing a lot of interest in investment in infrastructure sector in India. The demand is there for roads. The auto sector is growing at 30 per cent," he told reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of Indian Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

"The country needs $90 billion investment in infrastructure sector in the coming five years, of which $45 billion will be from the private sector. I think 20 per cent of that will be foreign investment," he added.

Talking about the road sector, Nath said the ministry was not building for the future, but was catching up with the past.
The ministry has plans for the construction of 24,000 km road across the country by the end of 2010-11.

He said the ministry would close the year with 11,500 km of work in hand and would award 12,000 km, adding 24,000 km all over the country, by the end of 2010-11.
 
The government was confident of building 20 km of roads per day, he added.

India has a road network of nearly 2 million km. Although India started in earnest in the 1980s to improve road transportation, there is still a lot of ground to be covered before India can boast of extensive and well designed roadways.