New Delhi, February 8 The key focus of the government's ₹12.2 lakh crore capital expenditure for the next fiscal will primarily be on sectors such as shipbuilding, national highways, railways, and metro train projects, Expenditure Secretary V Vualnam said.
The government has budgeted a total expenditure of over ₹53.47 lakh crore for 2026-27, of which approximately ₹12.22 lakh crore is projected to be capital expenditure, meaning it will be spent on building physical infrastructure.
In an interview with PTI after the budget, Vualnam said that sectors with large ongoing and new projects, such as national highways, railways, and the urban sector, including metro train projects, will continue to dominate the government's public capital expenditure spending in the next fiscal.
"Shipbuilding has become an infrastructure sector, and it will also become a major player. We are very keen on improving our share in shipbuilding (globally). About 5 per cent of India's import-export cargo goes on ships owned by Indian companies. About ₹6 lakh crore (annually) is spent on renting to foreign companies (for shipping goods). So, this will again be a focus, and there are quite a few, and it will remain our focus," Vualnam said.
In September last year, the Cabinet approved a ₹69,725 crore package to revitalize India's shipbuilding and maritime sector. The package introduces a four-pillar approach designed to strengthen domestic capacity, improve long-term financing, promote greenfield and brownfield shipyard development, enhance technical capabilities and skilling, and implement legal, taxation, and policy reforms to create a robust maritime infrastructure.
For the current fiscal year, the government has revised the capital expenditure estimate to ₹10.95 lakh crore, lower than the originally budgeted ₹11.21 lakh crore.
Public capital expenditure has increased significantly from ₹2 lakh crore in FY 2014-15 to ₹12.2 lakh crore in 2026-27. The capital expenditure estimate for FY27 is 4.4 per cent of the GDP, the highest ever.
