MP turns to EPC for road construction

Madhya Pradesh is turning to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts to develop roads.

The state is yet to complete various state highways and major portions of national highways.

"The public private partnership model is not working and the state government will award road construction contracts through the EPC route," an official said.

Madhya Pradesh has 4,771 km of national highways and 10,934 km of state highways, 19,429 km of major district roads and 26,482 km of rural and other district roads. The Madhya Pradesh government plans to complete all state highways by the end of 2017 through EPC contracts.

"Rising cost, underestimation of investment and competition have exerted pressure on public-private partnerships. And contractors in the build-own-transfer (BOT) model do not maintain roads," the official added.

The state has 20 national highway projects, including important routes like NH3 (Agra-Mumbai), NH7 (Varanasi-Kanyakumari) and NH12 (Jabalpur-Jaipur), NH39 (Ahmedabad-Indore) and NH78 (Katni-Sagar).

"These highways have not yet been completed. The investment will come from the Centre and the state needs approximately Rs 30,000 crore to complete these stretches," the official said.

Madhya Pradesh has completed 9,000 km of state highways, 4,000 km of major district roads and another 4,000 km is under construction. Tenders are to be floated for 3,500 km with financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and BRICS countries.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had last year described Madhya Pradesh's highways as the worst in the country. He had added the Centre would ensure road projects were completed shortly.