The Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) has, vide its A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 85 dated January 06, 2014, further liberalized the existing definition of ‘Infrastructure Sector’ under the extant external commercial borrowings policy (“ECB Policy”), to additionally include ‘Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul’, which will be treated as part of sub-sector of Airport in the Transport sector of infrastructure.
Further to the liberalization as aforesaid, the ‘Infrastructure sector’ and its sub-sectors that can avail external commercial borrowings under the automatic route of the ECB Policy (subject to certain compliances) will be deemed to include:
(a) Energy which will include (i) electricity generation, (ii) electricity transmission, (iii) electricity distribution, (iv) oil pipelines, (v) oil/gas/liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility (includes strategic storage of crude oil) and (vi) gas pipelines (includes city gas distribution network);
(b) Communication which will include (i) mobile telephony services / companies providing cellular services, (ii) fixed network telecommunication (includes optic fibre / cable networks which provide broadband / internet) and (iii) telecommunication towers;
(c) Transport which will include (i) railways (railway track, tunnel, viaduct, bridges and includes supporting terminal infrastructure such as loading / unloading terminals, stations and buildings), (ii) roads and bridges, (iii) ports, (iv) inland waterways, (v) airport (which will include maintenance, repairs and overhaul), and (vi) urban public transport (except rolling stock in case of urban road transport);
(d) Water and sanitation which will include (i) water supply pipelines, (ii) solid waste management, (iii) water treatment plants, (iv) sewage projects (sewage collection, treatment and disposal system), (v) irrigation (dams, channels, embankments, etc.) and (vi) storm water drainage system;
(e) (i) mining, (ii) exploration and (iii) refining;
(f) Social and commercial infrastructure which will include (i) hospitals, (ii) Hotel Sector which will include hotels with fixed capital investment of Rs. 200 crore and above, convention centres with fixed capital investment of Rs. 300 crore and above and three star or higher category classified hotels located outside cities with population of more than 1 million (fixed capital investment is excluding of land value), (iii) common infrastructure for industrial parks, SEZs, tourism facilities, (iv) fertilizer (capital investment), (v) post harvest storage infrastructure for agriculture and horticulture produce including cold storage, (vi) soil testing laboratories and (vii) cold chain facility.