THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance minister Dr T.M. Thomas Isaac said that Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIF-B) would be leveraged to mobilise Rs 1 lakh crore within five years for infrastructure development in the state. He said that departments had already submitted proposals worth Rs 6,500 crore to the Board. “Financial assistance will be provided once KIIF-B picks up the viable among them after a detailed project study," the minister said in a reply to a question in the Assembly on Tuesday.
The minister said projects worth Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 12,000 crore for infra development and Rs 8000 crore for land acquisition) would be implemented during the ongoing 2016-17 fiscal. The finance minister also announced the names of KIIF-B's independent members: Susheel Khanna (strategic management expert), C.P. Chandrasekharan (economist), J.M. Gupta (former SEBI official), Babu Paul (former bureaucrat) and Salim Gangadharan (former RBI official). Besides the Chief Minister and the finance minister, the Board will have as its official members the chief secretary and finance and law secretaries.
KIIF-B will implement those projects that have been included in the ‘anti-recession’ package announced in the 2016-17 Budget. “As per the amendment made to the KIIF Act, the Board has been empowered to take up activities that were not included in the original act like bridges, building complexes, agriculture, railway, IT, industry and rural and urban development,” the minister said. He said KIIF-B would take up projects that would cost more than Rs 100 crore.
“KIIF-B will provide the infrastructure like IT and rice parks. It is up to entrepreneurs to set up the units,” the minister said. He said that Rs 2,000 crore would be spent to replace the old and obsolete Water Authority pipes. At the moment, KIIF-B working capital is parked in the special treasury savings bank account of Thiruvananthapuram District Treasury. The funds will be shifted to a nationalised bank after the first meeting of KIIF-B.
