Budget 2016: FM proposes investment of Rs 97,000 crore in road sector

New Delhi: In a major push on infrastructure, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday announced allocation of Rs.97,000 crore for the roads sector in the union budget for the next fiscal. This amount includes the Rs.19,000 crore he has allocated for rural roads under the Pradhanmatri Gram Sadak Yojna. [caption id=“attachment_2648028” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Arun Jaitley. PTI[/caption] The finance minister also announced that road transport in the passenger segment would be opened up to the private sector. Describing the legacy of problems in the roads sector that his government had inherited, Jaitley said around 70,000 road projects had got stalled, locking investment of up to Rs.1 lakh crore. “I am happy to announce that our efforts have put back on track 85 percent of these stalled road projects,” Jaitley told Parliament. Rs.100 crore for birth centenary of Deendayal Upadhyay: The government on Monday announced allocation of Rs.100 crore for the celebrations of the birth centenary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, a leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of BJP. “The government has announced an initial amount of Rs.100 crore for the birthday celebration of Pandit Deendayal Upadhayay,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, presenting the union budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha. Late Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay is best known for his ‘Ekatm Manav-vad Darshan’ (the philosophy of integral humanism). IANS