Modi govt might start with Rs 12,000-cr highway projects

Due to economic slowdown over the last few years, the award of projects in roads and highways has slowed down

The road sector might well be the first to see action from the next central government under Narendra Modi. The road transport and highways ministry has readied plans for Rs 12,000-13,000 crore projects, including the Rs 6,500-crore Delhi-Meerut expressway project to be undertaken with private investment.

These, approved by the Public-Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC), were awaiting a final nod from the Cabinet, a ministry official said. In some, technical bids have been called but no decision taken for want of Cabinet nod. "We will send the proposals for clearance as soon as the new government takes office. The work on these projects has been completed from our side and we are to call for bids once the final nod comes."

These projects are to expand roads into two- and four-lane ones and spread those across Odisha, Punjab, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Delhi-Meerut expressway project, where 27 km of 150 km is to have 16 lanes, is being bid out under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model.

The road sector was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s focus even during its previous term in power at the Centre. Atal Bihari Vajpayee's BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government had in 1999 launched the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), the first phase of which was the Golden Quadrilateral.

NHDP focused on developing and strengthening the Golden Quadrilateral (roads connecting the four metro cities) and the north-south and east-west corridors (the metro cities' diagonals). These routes account for less than two per cent of India's roads but carry 40 per cent of road traffic.

In the past few years, the award of road and highway projects has slowed due to a slowdown and issues related to environment and forest clearances, besides land-acquisition problems. Between 2010 and 2012, developers bid aggressively when the government awarded a record 147 road projects of Rs 1.47 lakh crore. India's economic growth, much higher during that period, has slowed since and the input and inflationary costs have risen.

Over criticism on the slow pace of work in the sector, outgoing finance minister P Chidambaram had said in his interim Budget speech India's road network had seen a seven-fold rise during the two terms of the United Progressive Alliance government. “India's highway network had expanded from 51,511 km in 2004 to 389,578 km.”

Work on Rs 83,000-crore road projects is in progress. The UPA government has since 2009 seen completion of three projects, which have added 315 km to India's highway network. Many road projects are stalled by developers running short of cash and the government has even allowed them to reschedule the payment of premiums under a new policy.