Bhubaneswar, Feb. 1: The record investment of Rs 3.96 lakh crore proposed by the Union budget to strengthen infrastructure is expected to give fresh impetus to industry and real estate, the two drivers of growth in the state.

Captains of industry in the state hailed the budget, saying that it would have a positive impact on growth and lend a competitive edge to the Indian industry in the international market.

Confederation of Indian Industry (Odisha council) chairman Sanjay Pattnaik said investment in infrastructure would bring down transaction cost for industries making them more competitive in the world market. "Core industry will get a boost," he said, while mentioning of steel and cement sectors among the expected beneficiaries.

Pattnaik termed the budget as growth oriented but said the industry sector as a whole would have been happier had the corporate tax come down.

Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industries president Ramesh Mahapatra also echoed Pattnaik. "On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this budget at six," he said, appreciating the incentives announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley especially for the micro, small and medium enterprises.

"However, tax rebate has been proposed only for smaller companies with an annual turnover of up to Rs 50 crore. Besides, neither corporate tax nor lending rates have come down. You cannot bring in real growth without such incentives," he said.

Entrepreneurs with a stake in real estate appeared to be happy with Jaitley's bid to facilitate higher investment in affordable housing by according this sector the "infrastructure" status.

"This would bring in many benefits, including priority lending at lower interest rates," said D.S. Tripathy, chairman, Odisha chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India.

Tripathy said the move was good news not only for housing aspirants in the lower-economic group, but also for the real estate sector as a whole. "For the stakeholders, this would mean greater liquidity which is very important. It would also impact other segments of the housing sector," said Tripathy.

However, Pradipta Kumar Biswasroy, former president of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Odisha, said: "It would not be proper to jump to conclusions unless the government specifies what it means by according infrastructure status to affordable housing. It all sounds very nice but one should wait and see how things actually unfold in the coming days."