India's infrastructure sector witnessed a decline in growth at 3.9 per cent last month from 4.1 per cent in January and 4.4 per cent a year ago, mainly due to decline in production in electricity, cement and coal.
The aggregate growth in six infrastructure industries -- crude petroleum, petro refining, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel -- was still at 5.2 per cent during April-Feburary this fiscal compared to 3.2 per cent in the year-ago period, according to official data released on Friday.
According to official estimates, the petroleum refining sector posted a dramatic rebound posting 7.1 per cent growth last month compared to a negative growth of 0.1 per cent while crude production flared up by 4.9 per cent from a negative 0.3 per cent during February 2002.
During the first 11 months, the crude production was up by 3.5 per cent compared to a negative growth of 1.7 per cent in the year-ago period.
In case of the refining sector, the growth remained same at 4.4 per cent.
Finished steel production also surged by 8.4 per cent during the last month compared to 5.8 per cent a year ago but the other three sectors -- electricity, coal and cement witnessed a slump.
Steel output was up by 7.8 per cent during April-February this fiscal compared to 3.7 per cent a year ago.
Cement sector witnessed a lower growth of 5.2 per cent in February as against a handsome 19.6 per cent a year ago. During the last 11 months, the cement sector posted a robust 9.2 per cent growth compared to 7.1 per cent in the year-ago period.
Coal production grew by only 1.0 per cent as against 4.6 per cent a year ago. The production was lower at 4.0 per cent in the first 11 months as compared to 4.2 per cent in April-February 2001-02.
Electricity generation also grew by a meagre 0.1 per cent compared to a 2.9 per cent in February 2002. The overall growth was 3.5 per cent in the last 11 months compared to 2.9 per cent in the year-ago period.
Infrastructure sector growth peaked at 9.3 per cent in July last year but it tapered off later.
The six major sectors posted a aggregate growth of 6.9 per cent in August, 6.2 per cent in October, and 4.42 per cent in December last year.
The index of the infrastructure sector dipped to 166.2 points in February from 181.8 in January.
During April-February, the index stood at 170.8 points this fiscal compared to 162.4 during the same period in 2001-02 and 157.4 in 2000-01.