Riding on the infrastructure wave India, a body of corporate honchos from the US and India on Monday proposed the setting up of a $10 billion debt fund for the sector to expedite investments for projects in under public-private-partnership.

"An India-US infrastructure debt fund of $10 billion has been proposed by the Indo-US CEO's Forum,” commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma told reporters at the sidelines of the CII organised talk  ‘Indo-US: An agenda for co-creation’ in New Delhi.

He added, “The governments have yet to take a final view and put in place the modalities. In principle it has been agreed that the governments will be fully supportive of the recommendation.”

This comes in the backdrop of prime minister Manmohan Singh's repeated assertions earlier that only a infrastructure boom in the country could drive a double-digit growth figure.

“No time frame has been suggested for the proposed debt fund. A lot of work has to go before finalising the mechanism for putting in place the infrastructure debt fund,” the commerce minister said while being cautious at the suggestion mooted by the Indo-US CEOs forum.

The planning commission, which wants a pumping of $1 trillion in to the sector in the 12th Plan period (2012-17). "We are in favour of setting up such funds," Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at the CII conference.

The fund will be used to draw investments for other sectors like education, clean energy, bio-tech and health.

The Indo-US CEOs forum was formed in November 2009 during Manmohan Singh’s visit to the US. It is co-chaired by the Tata Group chief Ratan Tata and Head of Honeywell Corp Dave Cote. The forum has 12 industry captains from either side. 

In the coming months, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner are expected to discuss modalities for putting in place the infrastructure debt fund.