Melbourne must start building the axed East West Link road in the next five years or face being crushed by congestion, a federal body warns, but the state government is refusing to heed the advice.
Infrastructure Australia also said Melbourne should investment more in rail to handle the extra 2.8 million people expected to live in Melbourne by 2046.
"Infrastructure Australia has identified increasing capacity on Melbourne's rail network as a high priority for the next wave of infrastructure investment in Victoria," chief executive Philip Davies said on Monday.
The report also listed a connection between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink in the next five years as one of three high priorities for Victoria.
The Labor government in 2014 ripped up the East West Link contract, costing taxpayers $1 billion.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday repeated the government's mantra that the road would not be built by his government, adding he's not seen a version of East West that stacks up for Victorians.
"I do find it a little hard to take (Infrastructure Australia) particularly seriously when the fastest growing state in our nation is recommended to receive support for 13 projects and NSW is recommended to receive support for, I think, 33," he told reporters.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says East West Link is one of Melbourne's most needed roads.
"There's no doubt about it, Melbourne's population is growing, we need new freeways," he told reporters.
"The East West Link has got to be part of that. The Andrews government paid more than a billion dollars not to build it and that is just completely and utterly criminal waste of money."
But the state Greens say Infrastructure Australia's report is uninspiring and should focus on public transport growth.
"The Infrastructure Australia list sticks to the status quo of more tollways and increased congestion," transport spokesman Sam Hibbins said in a statement.
The report did not assess the under-construction West Gate Tunnel project, because the Victorian government did not submit all the requested details before deciding to build it in partnership with toll giant Transurban, without federal help.
Infrastructure Australia also called for significant public transport to be built at Fisherman's Bend, which is an area the size of Melbourne's CBD that has been slated for major development.
NSW has 11 high-priority initiatives listed in the report, compared to three in Victoria.
The Victorian government says the state gets just nine per cent of federal infrastructure funding, while NSW gets 45 per cent.
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