India must spend 10 per cent of GDP on infrastructure: IDFC

India needs to increase infrastructure spending to 10 per cent of GDP to achieve and sustain economic growth at 9 per cent in the coming years, according to IDFC Projects Ltd, an arm of Infrastructure Development Finance Co Ltd.

"In order to sustain growth targets, this (investment in infrastructure) would need to increase further to over 10 per cent of GDP by 2017," IDFC Projects managing director Pradeep Singh said in a presentation at the annual meeting of Asian Development Bank in Manila, the Philippines.

India's infrastructure spending is 8 per cent of its gross domestic product, as against China's 9 per cent, he said. India's GDP was $1.4 trillion at the end of March 2011.

IDFC is India's leading integrated infrastructure finance player providing end-to-end infrastructure financing and project implementation services.

Acknowledging that India has a long way to go in terms of meeting its infrastructure requirements, Singh said the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) envisages $1 trillion investment in infrastructure.

While the private sector is expected to invest at least half of this, around $500 billion, around $350 billion will come through debt and $150 billion in equity over next five years, he said.