New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Shares of companies related to infrastructure, construction, roads and highways on Tuesday jumped after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said national highways will be expanded by 25,000 kilometre during 2022-23.

The stock of Gayatri Projects zoomed 6.42 per cent, Hindustan Construction Company jumped 4.97 per cent, IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company (4.73 per cent), GPT Infraprojects (2.39 per cent), PNC Infratech (1.41 per cent), Ashoka Buildcon (1.32 per cent) and Dilip Buildcon (1.13 per cent) on the BSE.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said national highways will be expanded by 25,000 km during 2022-23 and the national ropeway development programme will be taken up in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

Sitharaman announced this while presenting Budget 2022-23 in Parliament.

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She also said contracts for the implementation of multimodal logistics parks at four locations through the PPP mode will be awarded in 2022-23.

The finance minister said Rs 20,000 crore will be mobilised through innovative ways of financing to complement the public resources.

"PM Gati Shakti Master Plan for Expressways will be formulated in 2022-23 to facilitate the faster movement of people and goods.

"The national highways network will be expanded by 25,000 km in 2022-23," she added.

The minister said that as a preferred ecologically sustainable alternative to conventional roads in difficult hilly areas, the National Ropeways Development Programme will be taken up on the PPP mode.

She added that the aim is to improve connectivity and convenience for commuters, besides promoting tourism.

"The equity markets were cheerful on announcement of huge outlay of capital expenditure in overall infrastructure development. This Union budget will also lay the foundation for economic growth through public investments as India emerges from a pandemic induced slump.

"Measures announced for manufacturing, infra building including roads, highways, railways, renewable energy, MSMEs, farm sectors etc, if executed with diligence will go a long way in attracting private capex and lead to accelerated economic growth and of course robust earnings growth for India Inc," according to Devang Mehta, Head – Equity Advisory, Centrum Wealth on Budget 2022.

Yesha Shah, Head of Equity Research, Samco Securities said, to sum up, with a “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” approach, the government has built upon its previous years' budget with obvious winners being heavy industries, infra-related sectors, hospitality, auto ancillary, defence equipment manufacturing companies and banks.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)