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| Draft proposal for Expressways Authority in two weeks: Nath |
| Press Trust Of India / New Delhi Oct 27, 2009, 01:05 IST |
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The road transport ministry is expediting the setting up of Expressways Authority of India and plans to put up the draft proposal in the next two weeks to invite comments for setting up the authority.
“We will put up draft proposal for the Expressways Authority on our website in the next two weeks,” Transport Minister Kamal Nath said.
The Expressways Authority of India would look exclusively at the requirement of building expressways, which are roads that facilitate faster traffic flow between places.
He also said the target of achieving 20 km of road construction a day would be reached by March next year. Soon after taking charge of the ministry in May, Nath had set a target of building 20 km of highways every day.
For constructing 20 km of highways a day, the work should be in progress on at least 20,000 km across the country, he said.
Asked if the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had decided on the ministry’s proposal to vest the ownership of highways with it, Nath said: “NHAI is talking to financial institutions to see what gives them comfort”.
The ministry had sent a proposal to NHAI asking for its approval to vest with it the ownership of highways so that the authority could award highway projects to developers on long-term lease so that they could raise loans easily against the lease.
At present, highways belong to the government of India and NHAI gives only licenses to private companies for developmental work and these companies cannot provide such highways as security for availing of loans on easy terms.
In July, Nath had said, since the requirements for contracting expressways were different from highways, he would set up the Expressways Authority of India and involve state governments and the private sector in the development.
“Expressways have to be looked at separately. So we are looking at setting up an expressways authority on the lines of NHAI. This will provide impetus to those areas where expressways are required and we are looking at ways to partner state governments as well as the private sector,” he had said.
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