Over 100 large projects await bank funding.

Over 100 projects, including from Tata Steel and Hindalco, sought financial assistance from public sector banks during January-March 2014. The industrial houses are pinning hope on the new Government to boost sentiments, especially in manufacturing and capital goods sectors.

According to data compiled by the Finance Ministry, for project sizes of Rs. 250 crore or more, banks received 108 new projects/proposals in sectors such as commercial real estate, power, roads, automobile, and oil and natural gas. The iron and steel sector tops the charts in terms of investment value, but number-wise, commercial real estate projects are the highest.

The total investment in these projects is over Rs. 2.26-lakh crore. Among these, Tata Steel's project in Odisha is the biggest with a total outlay of Rs. 43,149 crore, while Hindalco's Madhya Pradesh project comes next, at Rs. 12,552 crore.

For all these projects, banks have so far sanctioned Rs. 27,556 crore, of which, Rs. 3,252 crore has been disbursed. Data show that the Tata Steel project was sanctioned the highest amount, of Rs. 5,400 crore, but not a single rupee has been disbursed so far. However, bank officials are hopeful of giving money according to the timeline fixed, provided all the required approvals are in place.

The Finance Ministry has also listed 169 projects for which various issues, such as approvals from regulatory agencies and linkages, had been resolved fully or partially by the Cabinet Committee on Investment/Project Management Group and by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. Approvals and resolution of issues were expedited after the setting up of CCI and PMG in January 2013. The CCI was set up to speed up clearances of projects worth Rs. 1,000 crore or more in sectors such as infrastructure and manufacturing.

HBL