13 national highway projects worth Rs 10,300 cr approved

The projects would be spread across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Andhra, UP, Tamil Nadu and MP

The Ministry of road, transport and highways has approved 13 national highways projects worth Rs 10,300 crore. The total length of the roads is 670 km and will be executed on EPC (Engineering, Procurement Construction), BOT (Toll) and hybrid annuity model. The projects would be spread across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

The government is planning to award these projects by March this year. The project was approved by the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) meeting which was held under the chairmanship of Secretary Road, Transport and Highways, Sanjay Mitra.

Mitra said: “We had a meeting today and we have approved 13 National Highway projects having total project cost of Rs 10,300 crore. Out of the total 13 projects, three will be implemented on BOT(Toll) and Hybrid annuity each and the remaining seven projects will be on EPC mode.”

He added that the ministry is planning to award these projects by March this year and  will take around two and a half years for completion.

In a bid to fast-track highways projects, the government last year empowered Road Transport and Highways Ministry to approve projects with civil construction cost up to Rs 1,000 crore. This was done by segregating civil construction cost from capital cost of projects.

Earlier, the ministry has approved 18 national highway projects worth Rs 17,000 crore. The total length of the road is 982 km and will be executed on EPC (Engineering, Procurement Construction), BOT (Toll) and Hybrid annuity model. The project would be spread across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh etc.

The government is planning to award 10,000 km of National Highway during this fiscal year. Till January, it has awarded contracts for 7,000 km of roads.