Nath rebuts Plan panel over highway targets

In a rebuttal to Plan panel's comments that his ministry's highway targets were "unrealisable", Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath today said he was "realistic" about his 2009-10 plans on awarding projects for 12,652 km, which will be completed by June.

After taking charge of the Ministry, Nath had set the target, which the Planning Commission found "unrealisable".

While there are less than three months left for the fiscal to close, the government may at best award 3,794 km projects before March 31, the plan panel had observed.

However, Nath maintained that if not by March end, the 2009-10 contracts would be completed by June end. "We are realistic. It has to be seen ...That we have to get the maximum mileage from the available resources," Nath told PTI

While the Road Transport Ministry is exploring different ways of raising resources, the Plan panel has opposed funds from IIFCL to be given to the National Highways Authority of India.

"We have got to look at all the best possible ways of raising resources," Nath said. About Rs 2 lakh crore is required for road projects over the next two years.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who wants "sensible" use of funds by the Transport Ministry, is a member of a small empowered Group of Ministers along with Nath. The EGoM, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is to explore different ways of financing the road sector.