The first meeting of the Committee on Infrastructure is slated to take place on Friday. The Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to discuss the reform roadmap for the civil aviation sector.
The roadmap for the railways, which was also expected to be taken up has been dropped as Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is not expected to be in Delhi.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Thursday discussed issues relating to these sectors with representatives of the Council for Trade and Industry. Officials said executives from around a dozen industry houses including Reliance, Biocon, Hero and Bharati were present at the meeting.
The infrastructure committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry was represented by Feedback Ventures chairman Vinayak Chatterjee.
On the reported differences between the railway ministry and the Planning Commission on the reform agenda in Railways, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that, "The business of the Planning Commission is to extend the envelope of what is possible. So on virtually everything, we try to take a fresh look."
The Committee on Infrastructure, has as members Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Road Transport and Shipping Minister T R Baalu, Power Minister P M Sayeed, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
The paper on regulatory structures in the economy, which was to be prepared by the Planning Commission was in an early stage, he said, adding that there was no final view on whether there should be a single regulator for an entire segment, say transport or individual regulators for each sector. "Other than the financial sector, which the finance ministry should handle, we will look at all other sectors," he said.
