New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) India's infrastructure sector has the potential to attract investments worth $1.5 trillion (Rs.75 lakh crore) over the coming decade, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here Monday.

"The 11th Five-Year Plan envisages an outlay of over $500 billion of investment for infrastructure. We have the potential of absorbing $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years," Sharma said at a conference organised by the National Productivity Council.

The investment in infrastructure has risen from 4.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2002-03 to 6 percent last year, he said.

Stating that the government was committed to building infrastructure, the minister said the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor was now on a take-off stage.

"It's an ambitious project which will catalyse industrial growth in this entire region and would hopefully contribute to a substantial reduction in the transaction costs," Sharma said.

According to him, India has a competitive advantage in skill intensive industry and if it capitalises this trend, manufacturing exports could jump to $300 million by 2015.

The minister further said the government had followed an inclusive model of economic growth to ensure that the benefits of growth percolated down to the poorest sections of the society.

"The collective challenge we face today is to ensure that the benefits of growth trickle down to all sections of the society and to all parts of the country. We cannot allow a situation where we see islands of affluence amidst oceans of poverty."