The Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has said that housing deficit in India particularly in the urban areas is a source of opportunity to sustain the construction industry and also to the economy’s development momentum . Speaking at the 24th All India Builders Covention in Chennai today, Mr.Mukherjee said that the pace of urbanization is set to accelerate and in the next 25 years it is set to double. He called for the necessity of bridging the large infrastructure gap across diverse sectors like roads, power, railways and ports to sustain the growth in future. He said that during the 12th five year plan, investment in the infrastructure alone would be in the order of 40 thousand crore rupees. He said that if India continues its high growth trajectory over the next decade or two the Indian construction industry would face a shortage of skilled workforce. Therefore he urged that the construction industry initiate the construction sector skill council under the National skill policy in future. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the meet, Mr.Mukherjee said that he would talk to the opposition party to conduct a fruitful budget session of the Parliament. He said the Loksabha speaker Meira Kumar had also held discussions in this regard.