With the first year of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan already underway with growth of 5.6 per cent forecast for the year, the balance four years will be under pressure to perform at nearly 9 per cent to bring up the average over 8 per cent. This will necessitate a strong build-up of projects during the current year. So, while steps are being taken in the right direction with solutions being sought on fuel, land, environment and finance, time is of the essence. ‘Top priority’ projects need to be pursued to ensure that projects over Rs 1,000 crore achieve closure financially and are execution-ready. Further, half-finished projects, now stuck for funds or other reasons, should be pursued for completion as resources have already been invested and the country is yet to receive the benefits. The best examples of this are the irrigation projects in Maharashtra, which were recently exposed. Although over $5 billion has been invested in these projects, Maharashtra is suffering one of the worst droughts and yet the state government is still busy covering its tracks of ill-gotten gains. The minister has been reinstated but not a single proposal has come forward that tries to salvage the national wealth that has been poured into dams and has only led to a drain. Similarly, Uttarakhand has several hydro projects where hundreds of crores have been spent but they are left in the lurch. This is a national waste. So, while there can be numerous debates on raising taxes, the utilisation of revenues needs to be closely monitored going forward and prioritisation is required. Once these two areas are prioritised, we can move to expediting those projects that have achieved financial closure but are stuck for want of clearances of some sort. At this stage, to dislodge a project if arbitrary clearances compromise environmental and social stability is understandable. Alternates can be found and project feasibilities put back on track.Simultaneously, there is a need to address the dispute mechanism that is holding up the mechanism of releasing dues to contractors, eroding the faith of enterprise in the system and encouraging them to place their interests over all principles of fairness. This is not only important from the point of building faith in the dispute redress system but would also release much required liquidity for contractors reeling under the impact of higher input costs with interest costs now choking their existence. Further, these projects would also start contributing return on investments.The Budget can add little to relieve the construction industry from the existing malaise but RBI’s reduction on rates would serve like a shot in the arm for the beleaguered industry. Global tenders, transparency in bids and healthy competition are the tools that can curb corruption and scale up capacities of existing entrepreneurs. The way to building India is not easy – but with the right people and right intentions, we can find a way.