The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is likely to float tenders for over three dozen projects, under the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP), as soon as the new minister takes over.
The NHDP was first conceived in 2000 to develop 33,097 km of highways across the country in five phases. Work on about 17,000 km of highways is either completed or progressing. However, the ministry is yet to sanction work on 15,731 km of highways . Even though the Ministry has been trying to clinch financial closure for the projects worth Rs 10,000 crore for the past five months, it could not do so owing to the economic meltdown and the Election Commission’s model code of conduct.
“With the new government coming to power at the Centre, the Ministry hopes to expedite the execution of these projects,” a senior official of the Ministry told Deccan Herald. To provide viability gap funding for the companies for the execution of the projects, the government had even raised Rs 10,000 crore as tax-free bonds from India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd as part of the stimulus package in December 2008.
But this money has been lying idle as the projects are yet to begin. In 2009, the Ministry aims at awarding 35 to 40 projects in batches. The government also believes that if the execution of the projects starts, it will help mitigate the economic slowdown in the construction sector. The Road Transport and Highways sector headed by the then minister T R Baalu had incurred the wrath of the Planning Commission for delaying projects in the past five years.
Between 2008 and 2009, NHAI could award only eight projects against the target of 60.
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