NHAI plans to up road building outlay 62%

Of the total sum, over Rs 25,000 cr would come through PPP.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to increase the outlay on building roads for 2010-11 by 64.6 per cent to Rs 47,736 crore. The target for the current financial year is Rs 29,000 crore, subject to revisiosn.

Out of the total sum for the year, over Rs 25,000 crore will come through public-private partnerships and the rest from oil cess and borrowings. The authority borrows money from tax-free infrastructure bonds and external agencies.

An NHAI source said the original estimate (Rs 29,000 crore) for this financial year would come down. The source also added that the revised estimate for the next financial year would increase as a number of initiatives taken this year would be implemented next year.

Also, the road transport ministry has demanded an increase of 62 per cent in its gross budgetary support, from Rs 15,450 crore (Budget Estimate for the last financial year) to Rs 25,050 crore. Sources in the know say the revised Budget Estimate for the current financial year will be Rs 20,000 crore.

Meanwhile, NHAI has been able to register a substantial rise in the number of projects awarded in the current financial year so far. The authority has so far been able to award 28 projects against a target of 126 for the entire financial year. Only eight projects were awarded in the last financial year.

After setting a target of 20 km a day, Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath announced a number of steps to arrange resources to meet the target of about 7,000 km a year. One of these was announcing a shift from awarding road projects on the basis of the National Highways Development Programme — to develop roads across the country in seven phases — to awarding them on an annual basis.

NHAI has made two work plans for 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Under its Work Plan I, which is a target of projects to be awarded in 2009-10, the authority plans to award the 126 projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore and cover 11,928 km.