R-Infra looking to grow roads portfolio five-fold

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group-promoted Reliance Infrastructure is aiming at a near five-fold increase in its roads portfolio to Rs 22,000 crore by 2012 from the Rs 4,600 crore currently.

“We aim at increasing our portfolio to Rs 22,000 crore by 2012 and by Rs 5,000-6,000 crore by the end of this financial year,” Reliance Infrastructure CEO (Roads Business) Sudhir Hoshing said. He added the company is very hopeful of achieving the target and even surpassing it.

Anil Ambani’s speech at the recent annual general meeting had also shared the same sentiment. He had said: “The government has envisaged an investment of over Rs 3,00,000 crore in the road sector in the 11th Plan period (2007-2012) — the second-highest sectoral investment out of 10 identified sectors. Of this amount, private investment has been estimated at nearly Rs 1,07,000 crore, or over a third of the total. This investment will cover the construction and development of new roads as well as augment existing ones, with aggregate length of nearly 55,000 km.”

“With the traffic on Indian roads increasing by 7-10 per cent per annum, NHAI and other state road development corporations are coming up with massive development plans to decongest the highways. About 4,000 km of road development projects are expected to be announced over the next 9-12 months,” Ambani had further said in his speech.

In the near future, the company does not plan to bid for projects internationally. But, in terms of international presence, the company has cleared the pre-qualification for road projects worth Rs 5,000-6,000 crore in Nepal.