Infrastructure logs 5.7 pc growth in the first half

Good performance by coal, petroleum refinery and electricity sectors pushed up the infrastructure growth to 5.7 during the first half of th...

Good performance by coal, petroleum refinery and electricity sectors pushed up the infrastructure growth to 5.7 during the first half of the current fiscal against 5.4 during the same period of last year.

However, a slump in the performance of the six major infrastructure industries during September 2004 is a matter of concern as it fell to 5.9 from 7.9 in the corresponding month last year. These industries had been maintaining a growth rate since July on a month-to-month basis.

Among the performance of various sectors, official figures show that the production of finished steel came down to 3 during the first six months as against 11.9 during the first half of last fiscal.

However, crude petroleum output rose to 4.2 during the first half of current fiscal as against - 1.5 during the same period of last fiscal.

Similarly petroleum refinery products output grew 7.4 as against 6.1 during the first half of the last fiscal.

Cement sector growth came down marginally to 4.8 during April-September 2004 as against 5.6 during the comparable period of 2003.

While electricity sector grew by 7.8 as against 3 during the first half of last financial year, coal sector rose 6.6 during the first six months of this year as against 4.1 during April-September, 2003, official figures reveal.

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As far as crude petroleum production is concerned, it has shown ouput growth in each of the six months under review, touching nearly 17 million tonnes during April-September as against 16.3 million tonnes in the first half of the last fiscal.

Production of petroleum refinery products rose to 58.8 million tonnes during April-September this year as against 54.8 million tonnes during the same period of last fiscal.

Coal production stood at 167.8 million tonnes as against 157.4 million tonnes during April-September 2003. Power generation went up from 2,69,911 million kwh to 2,91,079 milion kwh during the first half of the current fiscal.