Buoyed by the impressive performance of cement, electricity, petroleum refinery and crude sectors, the infrastructure growth doubled to 9 per cent in April 2004 from 4.5 per cent a year ago, according to the official data released on Tuesday.

The four key infrastructure sectors -- cement, crude petroleum, refinery and electricity -- posted a double-digit growth while coal output almost doubled in April.

The housing and construction boom in the country led to a whopping 16.1 per cent growth in cement production during April this year compared to a decline of 2.8 per cent in the year-ago period.

The petroleum refinery sector logged 13.2 per cent growth in April 2004 compared to 6.9 per cent in the last year .

Crude petroleum also posted an impressive growth of 10.7 per cent during the first month of this fiscal as against a fall of 1.9 per cent in April 2003.

Electricity generation also picked up and posted a 10.7 per cent growth in the last month compared to 1.9 per cent a year ago.

Coal posted a modest 6.1 per cent growth in April 2004 compared to 3.1 per cent a year ago.

Finished steel production declined to 3 per cent in the last month from 14.4 per cent in April 2003.

The growth in infrastructure sector for April was higher than the average growth witnessed in the last fiscal.

During 2003-04, the core sector logged 11.3 per cent growth in February and 7.2 per cent in March but was below 6 per cent for the remaining 10 months.