Bakht declared that "development of Indian infrastructure is of the highest priority to us in government".

Delivering the keynote address at the India Infrastructure Summit organised here as a special focus session of the seventh annual World Economic Development Congress, the minister said "challenges of this magnitude can only be addressed by the convergent efforts of government and multilateral agencies working hand-in-hand with private sector and global investors."

Bakht said the government had a distinct role to play not only in prioritising infrastructure for its own investment, but also in establishing an effective and acceptable institutional and policy frame to signal and sustain vigorous expansion. He urged the US companies who have already presence in India and others exploring the feasibilityof investing in the infrastructure sector in the country to respond favourably.

Bakht said in the government's current year plan, the allocation for infrastructure projects has been stepped up by over 35 per cent from $10.5 billion to $14.5 billion. In the project sanctions of all FIs, he noted, the share of infrastructure projects has gone up by 217 per cent in the year 1997-98. Bakht said the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) had been provided with a $400 million capital base with a unique public-private sector partnership to lead private capital into viable infrastructure projects. Bakht said despite changes in government, policy dynamism and reform thrust have been kept and even accelerated.

The minister conceded that despite the RBI forecasting the country's GDP to grow at a 6.5 per cent, India's economic performance remained far short of its true potential.

Bakht was quick to assign blame for the stagnation of the Indian economy in the past few years to previous administrationsand claimed that the BJP-led coalition government had in six short months demonstrated the resolve to put the Indian economy on to a higher growth trajectory. "We dispelled all doubts on our commitment to liberalisation and economic reforms process," he said, and added: "We not only continued the reform process which is already in place but imparted to it a `turbo-charged momentum'."

Highlighting India's potential in the information technology and telecom sector, telecom minister Sushma Swaraj said "it has been identified as a major thrust area by the government." The government intended to make India an IT super power by the turn of the century, she said. Referring to the opportunities in the telecom industry, she said India's policies were geared to facilitate change.

"It is not only to ensure availability of basic telephone services all over the country at affordable prices but also to ensure that our telecommunications industry becomes capable of providing world class service," she said.

13,000km identified to set up expressways: Thambidurai

India has identified 13,000 km long stretches to set up expressways for motor vehicles at an investment of around $20 billion in the next 10 to 15 years, Union surface transport minister M Thambidurai has said.

"Government has identified 13,000 km-long stretches along which expressways will be required," Thambidurai told a meeting of American entrepreneurs here on Tuesday.

As part of government efforts to attract investment for the road sector, India was actively considering formation of a national expressway authority of India, the transport minister said. This would exclusively focus on expressway projects in the country, he said, adding funding requirement for national highways would be to the tune of $20 billion in the next 10 to 15 years.