Suresh Prabhu: Construction can bring in GDP growth and employment..

This year, Maharashtra budget has outlined its plan to prioritise infrastructure in a big way, indicating its intention and agenda for development. There are several significant urban projects in the city of Mumbai alone, from the metro-rail to the Mumbai Coastal Road, the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link,the Virar-Alibaug multimodal corridor, the Mumbai Eastern Waterfront project, and sewage treatment plants. In the state, the mega Samrudhhi Mahamarg project, a multimodal highway between Mumbai and Nagpur, has caught the fancy of many investors.
A virtual conference called Construction World Maharashtra , spearheaded by CW on April 28 captured these and other projects in the offing for Indias richest state. Some of the biggest names from government,public and private sectors will discuss and provide insights on various aspects of this focus theme, shedding light on perspectives that include business opportunities, infrastructure finance, and project status.
In his opening address, Suresh Prabhu, Member of Parliament and former union minister, Government of India, emphasised that construction is a sector that can boost the economy of India in a significant way.The challenge of economic growth, over the last few years, has been all over the world. We need to find sectors in the industry that create employment. And, employment for all segments of society – those that are well educated, the middle class, and also those that offer manual labour as their contribution in the job market. Construction is an industry that can offer each of these at the same time.
The sector by itself offers demand for building materials such as cement, steel, etc, and therefore, creates demand for manufacturing products. Architectural services, engineering services, EPC are other segments that can create jobs as well.EPC has the potential to push Indias economy, and at the same time, create jobs, said Prabhu. And so, twin benefits – of creating jobs as well as adding to GDP – can come from a single industry: Construction.