Presenting the union budget 2018-19 in Parliament, union finance minister Arun Jaitley announced an allocation of Rs 5.97 lakh crore for 2018-19 for infrastructure spending, up by over Rs 1 lakh crore from the ongoing fiscal.

With 2019 Lok Sabha elections less than a year away, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Mahesh Vyas, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and YD Murthy, Executive Vice President -Finance, NCC, on government's spending on infrastructure.

Vyas is of a clear belief that infrastructure is not making any progress and the situation is gloomy. The new investments proposals have come down further compared to what they were earlier

Moreover, investment into roads have also come down in the last quarter, which had seen consistent increase in investments earlier, he said.

However, Murthy said they have not seen a slowdown in awarding contracts in road sector, particularly in Bharatmala by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and in expressways.

"So as far as road development is concerned, we believe the momentum is still there," Murthy said.

First Published:Jul 4, 2018 11:12 AM IST