India’s booming infrastructure sector offers opportunities for UK firms
As India plans to spend US$1 trillion on infrastructure development over the next five years, the UK's Minister for Trade & Investment Lord Green was in Delhi last week, with a UK rail mission, helping British companies to seek out new business opportunities.
India's busiest railway stations already handle more passengers than the combined numbers handled by all of the country's airports. India plans to spend £57 billion developing its rail network into world-class facilities across the country.
Lord Green believes that UK companies can offer their expertise and capabilities to help India transform its infrastructure capacity, which is key to driving forward its future economic growth.
Last July, the UK and Indian Prime Ministers established the Britain-India Infrastructure Group (BIIG) to take forward business interests in India's large scale infrastructure development program.
British companies including Mott MacDonald and Halcrow are already closely involved with the Delhi Metro project, and a number of other metro projects across India.
India US$1 trillion infrastructure development plans include:
* £6 billion for the construction of dedicated freight corridors along the eastern and western sides of the country.
* £57 billion on rail development, including £1.95 billion for the Chennai Metro Project and £1.5 billion for the Hyderabad Metro.
* Other metro projects include the Delhi metro expansion, Bangalore Metro and the Kolkata Metro.
* India plans to develop six high speed rail corridors including:
•Delhi - Chandigarh - Amritsar
•Pune - Mumbai - Ahmedabad
•Hyderabad - Dornakal - Vijayawada - Chennai
•Howrah - Haldia
•Chennai - Bangalore - Coimbatore - Ernakulam
•Delhi - Agra - Lucknow - Varanasi - Patna
Lord Green has also called for greater economic liberalisation in India to further the enhanced partnership between India and the UK, saying that a successful EU-India Free Trade Agreement in the coming months, as well as completion of Doha negotiations, would benefit both British and Indian companies.
India-UK trade rose by more than two-thirds between 2004 and 2009 and now stands at more than £11 billion a year.
Bilateral trade in 2009 was £11.5 billion. The UK's exports to India increased by 37% last year, while India's exports to the UK increased by 17%.
India is a leading investor in the UK, where more than 700 Indian companies are operating, and the UK receives more than 50% of India's investment into Europe.
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