Govt to end FY15 with 9 more road projects

A total of nine, with a cumulative length of 895 km and project cost of Rs 17,815 cr, are to be offered soon

The government is set to offer the final batch of road projects for this financial year. A total of nine, with a cumulative length of 895 km and project cost of Rs 17,815 crore, are to be offered soon.

Three are expected under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model. The other six are understood to be put out under Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC).

The BOT projects expected are Mukarba Chowk (Delhi)-Panipat, Agra-Etawah and Solapur-Bijapur. Six-laning of Agra-Etawah comes under the fifth phase of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP); Solapur-Bijapur is from NHDP-III. Private sector interest is slowly showing sign of revival, with eight bids for two stretches offered on the BOT & toll mode.

"A total of 7,000 km had been targeted for award this financial year and we are very close to the target," said a ministry official.

"Financial feasibility is an inherently important aspect for BOT projects. Banks willing to lend for future projects will depend on previous project logjams being cleared," said Manish Agarwal, partner and leader-capital projects and infrastructure, PwC India.

Under EPC, six stretches will be offered. These are Varanasi-Gorakhpur (package II, III & IV), Varanasi-Sultanpur (I & II) and Madurai-Ramanathapuram (under NHDP-III programme).

"We are awaiting the finance ministry's nod, after which the projects will be offered and work will commence," said another senior official.

The government has set a plan of building 20,000 km of roads under NHDP at 30 km a day. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had previously said an average of 12 km was being laid each day, likely to go up to 15 km by end-March. "For this, we will need Rs 5 lakh crore," he'd said.

The government has also introduced a hybrid annuity model to share risk with the concessionaire, to revive private interest. Under this, the revenue generation risk is borne by the government and operations and maintenance is taken up by the private party.

LAST BATCH OF ROADS FOR FY15

• 9 projects, with a cumulative length of 895 km, are to be offered
• Three projects under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) mode and six under Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC) mode expected
• BOT projects expected are Mukarba Chowk (Delhi)-Panipat, Agra-Etawah and Solapur-Bijapur
• EPC projects expected are Varanasi-Gorakhpur (package II, III & IV), Varanasi-Sultanpur (I & II) and Madurai-Ramanathapuram (under NHDP-III programme)