INTRODUCTION TO INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT

Introduction To Infrastructure Management

Introduction Infrastructure is generally a set of interconnected structural elements that provide the framework supporting an entire structure. The term has diverse meanings in different fields, but is perhaps most widely understood to refer to roads, airports, and utilities.

It involves the following:-

• Physical structures that form the foundation for development. Infrastructure includes: wastewater and water works, electric power, communications.
• Basic services necessary for development to take place, for example, roads, electricity, sewerage, water, education and health facilities.
• The public facilities and services needed to support residential development, including highways, bridges, schools and sewer and water systems.
• Permanent resources serving society's needs, including roads, sewers, schools, hospitals, railways, communication networks etc.
• The collection of communication components (excluding active equipment) that together provide support for the distribution of information within a building or campus
• In transportation planning, the fundamental facilities and elements of a transportation system serving a county, city, or area, such as roads, rails, sidewalks, and traffic signals.
• Human-made systems that provide any or all of the normal public services to an urban area (e.g. water supply, sewage, utilities, traffic control).
• The architectural elements, organizational support, corporate standards, methodology, data, processes, and physical hardware/network, etc. that make up the data warehouse environment

These various elements may collectively be termed: civil infrastructure, municipal infrastructure, or simply public works, although they may be developed and operated as private-sector or government enterprises. In other applications, infrastructure may refer to information technology, informal and formal channels of communication, software development tools, political and social networks, beliefs held by members of particular groups. Still underlying these more general uses is the concept that infrastructure provides organizing structure and support for the system or organization it serves, whether it is a city, a nation, or a corporation. Economically infrastructure could be seen to be the structural elements of an economy which allow for production of goods and services without themselves being part of the production process. E.g. roads allow the transport of raw materials and finished products.

History of infrastructure

The word seems to have originated from Pakistan into Asia which carried over to the U.S, and throughout the first half of the 20th century was used to refer primarily to military installations. The term came to prominence in the United States in the 1980s following publication of America in Ruins (Choate and Walter, 1981), which initiated a public-policy discussion of the nation’s “infrastructure crisis,” purported to be caused by decades of inadequate investment and poor maintenance of public works.

That public-policy discussion was hampered by lack of a precise definition for infrastructure. The U.S. National Research Council (NRC) committee cited Senator Stafford, who commented at hearings before the Subcommittee on Water Resources, Transportation, and Infrastructure; Committee on Environment and Public Works; that “probably the word infrastructure means different things to different people." The NRC panel then sought to rectify the situation by adopting the term "public works infrastructure", referring to "...both specific functional modes - highways, streets, roads, and bridges; mass transit; airports and airways; water supply and water resources; wastewater management; solid-waste treatment and disposal; electric power generation and transmission; telecommunications; and hazardous waste management--and the combined system these modal elements comprise. A comprehension of infrastructure spans not only these public works facilities, but also the operating procedures, management practices, and development policies that interact together with societal demand and the physical world to facilitate the transport of people and goods, provision of water for drinking and a variety of other uses, safe disposal of society's waste products, provision of energy where it is needed, and transmission of information within and between communities."

In subsequent years the word has grown in popularity and been applied with increasing generality to suggest the internal framework discernible in any technology system or business organization. The term “critical infrastructure” has been widely adopted to distinguish those infrastructure elements that, if significantly damaged or destroyed, would cause serious disruption of the dependent system or organization. Storm or earthquake damage leading to loss of certain transportation routes in a city (for example, bridges crossing a river), could make it impossible for people to evacuate and for emergency services to operate; these routes would be deemed critical infrastructure. Similarly, an on-line reservations system might be critical infrastructure for an airline

Using a combination of these perspectives, a possible unified and harmonized list for the country can begin to get structured across the five groups suggested below:

• Group A: Rural Infrastructure: Irrigation, rural connectivity (roads, power, IT), cold chains and mandis, drinking water.
• Group B: Core Infrastructure: Transportation (roads, railways, airports, sea ports, inland waterways); energy (generation, transmission, distribution).
• Group C: Urban Infrastructure: Water, sanitation, sewerage, LRT/MRT/MTS, city-energy distribution, terminals and logistics parks.
• Group D: Land-Intensive: SEZs, industrial parks, new townships, industrial cluster development, IT parks.
• Group E: Social Infrastructure: Healthcare, education, leisure and entertainment, retail, tourism, housing, exhibition and convention centres, hospitality.

RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Rural infrastructure comprises rural roads, rural housing and rural electrification. Rural road connectivity is an extremely important aspect of rural development. A centrally sponsored scheme has been launched called the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) which seeks to provide connectivity to all unconnected habitations in rural areas with a population of more than 500 persons through good all-weather roads by the end of the Tenth Plan period. In respect of hill states and desert areas, the objective would be to connect habitations with population of 250 persons and above. In order to achieve the objective of the Programme, a requirement of Rs.60, 000 crore has been estimated.

According to the 1991 Census around 3.1 million households are without shelter and another 10.31 million households reside in unserviceable kutcha houses. Considering the magnitude of the problem, a National Housing Habitat Policy was announced in 1998 which aims at providing “Housing for all” and facilitates construction of 20lakh additional housing units (13lakh in rural areas and 7lakh in urban areas) annually with an emphasis on extending benefits to the poor and deprived. Government is committed to the goal of ensuring shelter for all by the end of Tenth Plan period. For achieving these objectives a comprehensive action plan for rural housing has been prepared. The objective of the Indira Gandhi Awas Yojna (IAY) is to provide assistance to the below poverty line households (BPL) belonging to Scheduled caste, Scheduled tribe, and free bonded labor categories.

CORE INFRASTRUCTURE

The Index of Six core-infrastructure industries having a combined weight of 26.7 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with base 1993-94 stood at 237.9 (provisional) in October 2007 and registered a growth of 4.5% (provisional) compared to a growth of 9.9 % in October 2006. During April-October 2007-08, six core-infrastructure industries registered a growth of 6.2% (provisional) as against 8.9% during the corresponding period of the previous year.

 Coal production (weight of 3.22% in the IIP) registered a growth of 9.2% (provisional) in October 2007 compared to growth rate 1.9% in October 2006. Coal production grew by 3.8 % (provisional) during April-October 2007-08 compared to an increase of 4.8% during the same period of 2006-07.
 Electricity generation (weight of 10.17% in the IIP ) registered a growth of 4.2% (provisional) in October 2007 compared to a growth rate 9.7% in October 2006. Electricity generation grew by 7.1% (provisional) during April-October 2007-08 compared to 7.1% during the same period of 2006-07.
 Crude petroleum production (weight of 4.17% in the IIP) registered a negative growth of 0.1% (provisional) in October 2007 compared to a growth rate of 9.3% in October 2006. The Crude petroleum production registered a growth of 0.6% (provisional) during April-October 2007-08 compared to 4.8% during the same period of 2006-07.
 Petroleum refinery production (weight of 2.00% in the IIP) registered a growth of 2.8% (provisional) in October 2007 compared to growth of 18.1 % in October 2006. The Petroleum refinery production registered a growth of 8.8% (provisional) during April-October 2007-08 compared to 13.1% during the same period of 2006-07.
 Finished (carbon) Steel production (weight of 5.13% in the IIP) registered a growth of 4.8% (provisional) in October 2007 compared to 10.6% (estimated) in October 2006. Finished (carbon) Steel production grew by 6.1% (provisional) during April-October 2007-08 compared to an increase of 11.9% during the same period of 2006-07.
 Cement production (weight of 1.99% in the IIP) registered a growth of 7.0% (provisional) in October 2007 compared to 9.4% in October 2006. Cement Production grew by 8.1 % (provisional) during April-October 2007-08 compared to an increase of 10.4% during the same period of 2006-07.

Source: Ministry of Commerce and Industry

Production in Infrastructure Industries

Core Infrastructure also include: Transportation (roads, railways, airports, sea ports, inland waterways); energy (generation, transmission, distribution).

Roadways: Vital lifelines of the economy
Roadways in India have come a long way. Starting from the pug dandies (a small path created naturally due to frequent walks) of earlier times to the present-day Rajpath of Delhi, the country has crossed many spheres of road travel. The 'thread that binds the nation together' is truly a deserving metaphor for a road network that is one of the largest in the world. Its grand system of national highways, state highways and the roads that run endlessly within cities are marvelous.

India has its well-connected transport network since the time people started keeping records. The road network is assuming a pivotal role in the movement of goods and passengers. There has been a substantial shift in the mode of transportation from Railways towards the road sector. While the Railways handle only 40% of the freight and 20% of the passengers load, 60% of the goods and 80% of passenger's movement takes place through roads. It is anticipated that the function of the road network will further increase in the foreseeable future.

Though the National Highways constitute only 2% of the entire road network, they carry about 40% of the freight and passengers. The National Highways cover a length of 52000 km and pass through every state of India. They are the vital lifelines of the economy making possible trade and commerce.

The National Highways besides connecting the major cites, i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta link a number of other important towns and commercial hubs. There are 259 National Highways on the basis of their route numbers. However, the construction and up keeping of roads is one of the country's most continuous and expensive tasks. Driven by the ambition to connect the various regions of the country with high quality motor able roads, the Ministry of Surface Transport so far has laid down a stretch of 52,010 km of national highways in the country distributed over various states.

Aviation: Aviation encompasses all the activities relating to airborne devices created by human ingenuity, generally known as aircraft. These activities include the organizations and regulatory bodies as well as the personnel related with the operation of aircraft and the industries involved in airplane manufacture, development, and design. General aviation includes all non-scheduled civil flying, both private and commercial. Because of the huge range of activities, it is difficult to cover general aviation with a simple description — general aviation may include business flights, private aviation, flight training, ballooning, parachuting, gliding, hang gliding, aerial photography, foot-launched powered hang gliders, air ambulance, crop dusting, charter flights, traffic reporting, police air patrols and forest fire fighting.

Waterways: Water transportation is the intentional movement of water over large distances. Methods of transportation fall into three categories: Aqueducts, which include pipelines, canals, and tunnels; container shipment, which includes transport by truck and tanker; and towing, where a tugboat is used to pull an iceberg or a large water bag along behind it.

Due to its weight, the transportation of water is very energy intensive. Unless it has the assistance of gravity, a canal or long-distance pipeline will need pumping stations at regular intervals. In this regard, the lower friction levels of the canal make it a more economical solution than the pipeline. Water transportation is also very common along rivers and oceans.

Power:Generation: The overall generation in the country has increased from 617.5BU during 2005-06 to 662.5 BU during the year 2006-07. The overall generation has improved by as follows:
Thermal improved by +6.1%
Hydro improved by +11.9%
Nuclear improved by +7.9%

Transmission: The Government of India has an ambitious mission of ‘POWER FOR ALL BY 2012’. This mission would require that our installed generation capacity should be at least 2, 00,000 MW by 2012 from the present level of 1, 14,000 MW. To be able to reach this power to the entire country and expansion of the regional transmission network and inter regional capacity to transmit power would be essential. The latter is required because resources are unevenly distributed in the country and power needs to be carried great distances to areas where load centres exist.

Distribution: The total installed generating capacity in the country is 135000 MV and the total number of consumers is 140 million. Apart from an extensive transmission system network at 500 KV HVDC, 400 KV, 220 KV, 132 KV and 66 KV which has developed to transmit the power from the generating station to grid substations and a vast network of sub transmission in distribution system has also come up for the utilization of the power by the ultimate consumer.

Rural electrification: Rural Electricity involves supply of energy for two types of programmes:
a. Production oriented activities like minor irrigation, rural industries etc.;
b. Electrification of villages.

While the emphasis is laid on exploration of ground water potential and energisation of pump sets/tube wells, which has a bearing on agricultural production, the accent in respect of areas covered under the Revised Minimum Needs Programme (RMN P), is on village electrification.

LAND INTENSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE

India was one of the first in Asia to recognize the effectiveness of the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) model in promoting exports, with Asia’s first EPZ set up in Kandla in 1965. With a view to overcome the shortcomings experienced on account of the multiplicity of controls and clearances; absence of world-class infrastructure, and an unstable fiscal regime and with a view to attract larger foreign investments in India, the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Policy was announced in April 2000. The main objectives of the SEZ Act are:

• generation of additional economic activity
• promotion of exports of goods and services;
• promotion of investment from domestic and foreign sources;
• creation of employment opportunities;
• development of infrastructure facilities;

An industrial park (or industrial estate in British English) is an area of land set aside for industrial development. Industrial parks are usually located close to transport facilities, especially where more than one transport modalities coincide: highways, railroads, airports, and navigable rivers. A more "lightweight" version is the office park, which has offices and light industry, rather than heavy industry. Many small communities have established industrial parks with only access to a nearby highway, and with only the basic utilities and roadways, and with few or no special environmental safeguards.

SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Development of physical infrastructure cannot usher in overall development at the desired level if the social infrastructure is not simultaneously developed. The capacities and technical refinement of the physical infrastructure like roads, sewers, electricity, open spaces, gardens, the evolving requirements of social infrastructures like shopping complexes, restaurants, medical facility zones, schools etc. are clearly delineated. Education, Health, Social security, public entertainment etc. has to be developed to ensure proper social infrastructure. Tourism has shown a substantial growth in the last decade; especially 2003-04 has been the best in the history of Indian tourism. In fact, Tourism has become the second largest foreign exchange earner for the country Tourism is vital for many countries, due to the income generated by the consumption of goods and services by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry, and the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism. These service industries include transportation services such as cruise ships and taxis, accommodation such as hotels, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, and other hospitality industry services such as spas and resorts.

GROWTH POTENTIAL OF INFRASTRUCTURE

India's infrastructure has been expanding at an accelerated pace to support the economic growth rate of over 9 per cent. The six core-infrastructure industries, which account for a combined weight of 26.68 per cent in the index of industrial production (IIP), registered a growth of 8.6 per cent in 2006-07 as against 6.2 per cent during 2005-06.

The growth has continued apace during the current fiscal, with the six core-infrastructure industries growing at the rate of 6.9 per cent during April-September 2007. Significantly, electricity recorded a growth rate of 7.6 per cent compared to 6.7 per cent in the same period last year. Other sectors recording major growth include: petroleum refinery products (9.8 per cent), cement (8.3 per cent) and finished (carbon) steel (6.6 per cent).
According to a consultation paper circulated by the Planning Commission, a massive US$ 494-billion of investment is proposed for the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12), which would increase the share of infrastructure investment to 9 per cent of GDP from 5 per cent in 2006-07. This translates roughly into US$ 40 billion of annual additional investment.

The projected sector-wise shares are: 30.4 per cent in electricity, 15.4 per cent in roads and bridges, 13.7 per cent in telecommunications and 12.4 per cent in railways among others. Significantly, 30 per cent of the total investment is expected to come from the private sector (including public-private partnership).
For this, the Government has already taken many proactive measures such as opening up a number of infrastructure sectors to private players, permitting foreign direct investment (FDI) into various sectors, introducing model concession agreements, taking up projects such as the National Highway Development Project and National Maritime Development Programme among others. Some of the projects planned for the next five years include:

• Additional power generation capacity of about 70,000 MW
• Construction of Dedicated Freight Corridors between Mumbai and Delhi, and Ludhiana and Kolkata
• Capacity addition of 485 million MT in major ports, 345 million MT in minor ports
• Modernization and redevelopment of 21 railway stations
• Development of 16 million hectares through major, medium and minor irrigation works
• Modernization and redevelopment of 4 metro and 35 non-metro airports
• Six-laning 6,500 km of Golden Quadrilateral and selected National Highways
• Construction of 1,65,244 km of new rural roads, and renewing and upgrading existing 1,92,464 km covering 78,304 rural habitations

References
www.3inetwork.org
www.india.gov.in/business
www.sezindia.nic.in
www.nadia.nic.in
www.powermin.nic.in
www.india.mapsofindia.com
www.en.wikipedia.org

Written By: Meenakshi Ghanghas, Lecturer
Dept of Manangement studies B.S. Ananpuria Institute of Technology and Management
Faridabad