This site provides detailed information on India Infrastructure Fund.

The site also focuses on the current scenario and reforms effected by the government for funding infrastructural development in India. The Ministry of Finance and Department of Economic Development hold that economic development of India is directly connected with availability of basic and modern infrastructure in India. The government of India has now formulated policies to forge public and private partnership to facilitate India Infrastructure Fund accumulation. India Infrastructure Fund is a recently implemented reform program, involving a paradigm shift of stance to develop Indian infrastructure through private-public joint venture. Indian economy is now feeling the heat of basic infrastructure constraints, both physical and human. Infrastructure investment in India always occupied the back-seat in the economic development policy draft. The budgetary allocation proved to be too little to keep pace with other areas of business development in India. To add to the problem, the growth of Indian IT, Telecommunication, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing industries has almost exhausted the limited world class infrastructure that was at India's disposal. The India Infrastructure Fund is a pool of monitory contribution from public and private investor and also includes foreign investors. Some landmark development achieved with the help of India Infrastructure Fund are: Roads

Highway construction Four-lane National Highways of 35000 km Highway related en route activities like restaurants, motels, and rest/parking areas as decided by the implementing agency

Ports

Construction and operation of container terminals Construction and operation of break-bulk, multipurpose and specialized cargo berths Warehousing, container freight stations, Storage facilities and tank farms Dry docking and ship repair facilities Pilotages Captive facilities for port based industries

Civil Aviation

Construction of world class international airports in five cities, permitting upto100% foreign equity investment announced

Important private sector aided airport projects in Kochi, Bangalore etc announced Other private sector aided airports planned; Ahmedabad airport, Amritsar airport upgradation, Chennai cargo complex, new international terminal and a second runway for Delhi airport, runway extension and international block for Jaipur airport Green-field airports

Construction of terminal / facilities and Ground handling Others

Real estate Malls, business, and entertainment facilities

Infrastructure mutual funds came in vogue a few years ago, and there are plenty of mutual funds that can help you get exposure to the infrastructure sector if you want to. Here is a list of infrastructure mutual funds in India, and if you feel Ive missed any, please let me know and Ill update the list. Ive taken the returns data from the individual websites, scheme information documents, and in some cases Value Research, so they may not correspond to exactly the same period, but should still give a decent idea on how each of these funds have performed in the past.

Infrastructure Mutual Funds in India

1. Reliance Infrastructure Fund: Here is a mutual fund that I wrote about during its NFO early last year. It has returned 10.31% for the past year, and since its not that old, the 3 year or 5 year returns are not available for it. 2. Tata Infrastructure Fund: This is a slightly older fund and was listed in 2004. The one year return for this fund has been 17.54%, 3 year returns have been 6.35% and 5 year returns have been 21.81%. It has done better than the BSE Sensex in all these periods. 3. ICICI Prudential Infrastructure Fund: This fund gained 12.20% in the last year, 9.64% in the last 3 years, and 24.47% in the last 5 years. 4. UTI Infrastructure Fund: This fund also came out in 2004, and returned 11.79% last year, 7.67% in the last 3 years, 23.65% in the last five years. 5. HDFC Infrastructure Fund: This fund was started in March 2008, so like the Reliance Infrastructure mutual fund, there isnt as much past returns information available for it. 6. Birla Sun Life Infrastructure Fund: This fund was started in March 2006; the one year returns are 24.41%, and the 3 year returns are 4.49%. 7. Sahara Infrastructure Fund: The Sahara Infrastructure fund was launched in April 2006, and the one year return for this fund is 9.43%. 8. Canara Robeco Infrastructure Fund: The Can Infrastructure fund was launched in November 2005, and the one year return for the fund is 26.02%, while the 3 year returns are 7.00%. 9. Bharti AXA Focused Infrastructure Fund: This fund was launched early this year, so there isnt much performance data on it yet.

10. SBI Infrastructure Fund: This is the only close ended infrastructure fund mentioned here so far, which means that you cant buy and sell the fund any time, and there are only certain periods of time when the fund opens for subscription, and when you can redeem your units. However the fund did start in June 2007 with a three year lock-in period, so it should be available for purchase now. 11. Tata Indo-Global Infrastructure Fund: This is a slightly unique fund in the sense that it invests in infrastructure in not only India, but other emerging countries as well. The fund was established as a close ended scheme in October 2007 for a 3 year period, and wouldve converted to an open ended fund after the period. Looking at the portfolio as at 31st March, it appears that the fund has invested 77.95% in Indian equities, and 19.75% in foreign securities which includes Invesco Infrastructure C and Credit Suisse Emerging Market Infrastructure Eq0-B. Since inception the fund has returned a total of -9.72% (as on March 31, 2010). 12. LIC Infrastructure Fund: The LIC Infrastructure fund was launched in February 2008, and has returned 13.85% in the last year. The return since inception has been 2.36%. 13. Benchmark Infra BeeS: This is actually an ETF not a mutual fund, but is included here as it gives you equity exposure to the infrastructure sector. The investment objective of the Scheme is to provide returns that, before expenses, closely correspond to the total returns of the securities as represented by the CNX Infrastructure Index. The index includes companies belonging to Telecom, Power, Port, Air, Roads, Railways, Shipping and other Utility Services Providers As you can see there are quite a few infrastructure funds already available, and if you think I missed any, please leave a comment, and Ill update the post.