Policy on Infrastructure

Since infrastructure constitutes a critical aspect of the national economy, an overview of the BJP's thinking on infrastructure is presented under:

Energy and Power

Investment in power must be accelerated urgently. Any further delay in adding new capacity will inflict considerable costs on the economy.

1. The Government will ensure that all eight "fast track" projects start construction in 1998.
2. Transmission and distribution need to be strengthened. To ensure that private investors in this sub-sector do not have the same experience as their counterparts in generation, the Government will create a standardized application procedure with clear and transparent rules for their entry;
3. The Government will strive for a national consensus to ensure that, in five years, a commercially viable power tariff structure comes into operation;
4. BHEL will be revitalized to expand its capacity to emerge as a global player in the next five years;
5. The Government will review the liquid fuel policy and institute a more efficient and fair policy regime;
6. Large-scale research and development will be instituted to develop more non-conventional energy;
7. Other things being equal, preference will be given to Indian companies in power generation and distribution;
8. The long-stalled nuclear power programme will be restarted. India has mastered the technology and the entire nuclear fuel cycle. Only two nuclear plants have gone critical in the last seven years. Instead of importing nuclear power technology from Russia, there is no reason why our trained engineers should not be exporting Indian nuclear power technology to foreign countries;
9. In the oil sector, the Government will involve the Indian private sector in oil extraction and refining on the explored oil fields and will, on viable terms, allow Indian joint ventures with foreign companies in oil exploration and extraction;
10. In the coal sector, the Government will increase the production of coal, reduce costs and raise productivity. It will involve the Indian private sector in coal mining so as to meet the increased energy needs of the country.

Railways

1. Private participation in using such idle railway tracks will be allowed;
2. An efficiency audit of the Railways will have to be done to prevent wastage and disuse of stores and rolling stock;
3. Also, a study should be done to ensure that trains carry payloads up to 4,000 tonnes;
4. We will institute research and development for the Indian Railways suited to Indian conditions;
5. Container transport will be encouraged on a point-to-point basis;
6. The Railways will also run pilgrimage specials connecting the several places of pilgrimage in the country both from a commercial point of view and service to the pilgrims, as well as from the standpoint of national integration.

Roads and Bridges

1. The National Highways Authority of India will be made the regulator for this sector. It will be responsible for setting tolls, inviting bids from private companies, evaluating them and awarding them. The BJP will continue with the current fiscal incentives for this sector. Like in other sectors, it will identify the non-fiscal barriers to investment in this sector, for their speedy removal;
2. The Government will identify the four most heavily used stretches of the national highway system. It will formulate and implement an action plan to upgrade them within two years using both the public and private sectors wherever necessary.
3. For all other highways, the Government will invite the private sector to upgrade them, for which they will collect toll revenues. If the private sector is not interested, the Government will create a State-owned National Highway Development Corporation that will go ahead and upgrade these highways, for which it will also levy tolls;
4. A proportion of the taxes on motor vehicles and on petrol and diesel collected in each city will be handed over to that city or town to use to upgrade the roads in those cities; and,
5. Except for very long distance and high investment projects, the policy will be to involve only the Indian private sector in the bids.

Sea Ports

Most Indian ports are operating at more than 100 per cent capacity. Yet they are very inefficient when compared to other parts in the region. As part of a proper port development programme, the BJP will do the following things:

1. Convert ports into companies that can raise funds from the debt and equity markets. The initial shareholding of this company can be divided four ways with the central Government, the State Government, the city administration and the general public;
2. Ports will be encouraged to invest in the latest information technology and cargo handling equipment to reduce turnaround time;
3. The workers of ports should be retrained to use these new technologies. Ports must be more efficient, but they need to become so without displacing too many workers;
4. Develop Mumbai and Vishakhapatnam ports as megaports, which will be warehouses for the country on either seaboard;
5. Private sector minor ports should be encouraged. They will take the load of the bigger ports;
6. Except for large international ports, in other cases, preference will be given to Indian companies.

Telecommunications

The aim of our telecom policy will be to:

1. Increase the number of phone lines dramatically, especially in villages;
2. Satisfy the more demanding audio, video and data communications needs of business and homes.

For these purposes, the BJP Government will take the following steps:

1. The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 will be replaced with new legislation that takes into account the advances in the last century and more and reflects the current and future status of the telecom sector;
2. The Government's role will be that of a regulator, so the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will be strengthened;
3. The department of telecom will be converted into a company called India Telecom. To expedite the shift from a Government department to a profit-making company, the Government will divest a portion of its shareholdings in India Telecom at the appropriate time;
4. The Government will not discriminate between Government-owned companies or the new private companies coming into operation. All restrictions (inter-circle, long-distance, international) will be removed on schedule, or earlier, in the interests of greater competition;
5. However, the Government will maximize the returns from the companies that it already owns (India Telecom, VSNL, MTNL, ITI). To make these telecom companies competitive, they will be given freedom to hire the best people and pay them market salaries;
6. Since India is expected to have the sixth-largest number of phones in the world in the next few years, it must have a telecom-manufacturing industry to match this. The Government will encourage the creation of world-class telecom-manufacturing in India, that is encouraged to use indigenously developed technology;
7. The Government policy for foreign direct investment will discourage foreign majority holdings in telecommunication companies.