New Delhi, Feb. 1 -- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Sunday, during her Union Budget 2026 speech, announced a sustained infrastructure push, particularly targeting cities with populations of over 5 lakh.

Declaring that Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities had expanded into "growth centres", the FM highlighted that public capital expenditure has grown "manifold" from Rs.2 lakh crore in FY2014-15 to Rs.11.2 lakh crore in BE2025-26.

The FM proposed increasing this allocation further, earmarking Rs.12.2 lakh crore for public capex in FY2026-27 to "continue the momentum."

To strengthen the confidence of private developers as part of the infrastructure push, Sitharaman proposed setting up an Infrastructure Risk Guarantee Fund to provide prudenti...