Fresh investment of around Rs 25,000 crore announced by the Union Railway Ministry in 72 new projects saw aggregate fresh investment announced in March 2010 inching up by 17 per cent when compared with such statistics for February 2010. In all, 1,092 new projects entailing a total investment of Rs 60,368 crore were announced in March 2010.

New Railway projects announced in Railway Budget 2010-11 accounted for around 56 per cent of the fresh investment that emanated in the Services & Infrastructure sector in March 2010. In all, 901 new projects involved a total investment of Rs 33,834 crore in the Services & Infrastructure sector.

Following are some of the major Railway projects announced in the Budget:

The Roadways sector saw announcement of 376 projects worth Rs 4,545 crore. Of this, NHAI's four laning of Indapur - Zarap section from 84.00 km to 454.00 km of NH-17 in Maharashtra was the largest project and Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam's 4 km-long four-lane high level bridge across Ganga River connecting of NH-30 (Arrah) and NH-19 (Chapra) via Babura-Dorigunj with 17 km approach road and 5 km long guide bundh in Bhojpur and Saran district of Bihar was second largest project in roadways sector.

The social infrastructure sector witnessed state government authorities taking up 36 water supply schemes and 69 other community services projects during the month. Of which, Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation's underground sewerage treatment plant at Mira-Bhayandar city in Thane district of Maharashtra with an investment of Rs 406 crore was the largest.

In the construction sector, 28 new commercial complexes and shopping malls were announced across the country. In addition, ProjectsToday also collected information on 228 real estate projects, 13 hospitals and 8 hotels which were at different stages of development.

A major project announced in the Real Estate sector was True Value Homes (India)'s integrated township 'Svaya' at Sriperumbudur in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. The project spread over 13 acres of land, comprises 800 apartments.

Baby Memorial's Hospital with a capacity of 700 beds at Health City, Kochi, in Ernakulam district of Kerala was the largest hospital project announced in March 2010. Similarly, Acron Infra Projects' 5-star hotel with 225 rooms at Chembur in Mumbai was the largest project in the Hotel sector.

The 65 new Power projects entailing a total investment of Rs 18,625 crore accounted for around one-third of the fresh investment seen in March 2010.Of the 65 Power projects prominent ones were

Though the Manufacturing sector accounted for only 10 per cent of the total fresh investment in March 2010, the sector saw a couple of mega project proposals in the Paper and Automobiles sectors.

Kohinoor Pulp & Paper plans to set up a Pulp unit with a capacity of 90,000 tpa in Goalpara district of Assam with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore and ITC's Paper intends to expand its packaging capacity from 4 lakh tpa to 6 lakh tpa at Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh involving an investment of Rs 1,100 crore.

In the Automobile sector, the passenger car leader, Maruti Suzuki announced its intentions to expand the car manufacturing capacity from 3 lakh numbers per year to 5.5 lakh numbers per year at Manesar in Gurgaon district of Haryana with an investment of Rs 1,664 crore.

The mining sector saw announcement of 11 projects, out of which Western Coalfield's Jamuniya coal mining in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh involving an investment of Rs 1,027 crore was the biggest.

Of the total projects announced during March 2010, 765 projects with a total investment of Rs 34,555 crore were by the State and Union Government agencies. Of these, Union Government agencies accounted for 219 new projects with an investment of Rs 27,910 crore. Private entities accounted for the balance 327 projects worth Rs 25,813 crore.