NHAI to award 5 mega projects worth Rs 25,000 cr

New Delhi, July 11 (PTI) The National Highways Authority will award five mega road projects involving an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore during the current financial year.

These five projects are part of the National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) plan to build nine big-ticket highways (those involving Rs 5,000 crore or above investment and covering nearly 500 km) which would add substantially to the existing network of 71,000 km.

"The NHAI would award five mega road projects this year," road transport and highways secretary Brahm Dutt told PTI.

Besides these projects, the NHAI has already invited bids for two projects which are under evaluation, Dutt added. These two projects include the 570-km project from Kishangarh near Jaipur to Ahmedabad via Udaipur.

As many as 13 firms, including one each from Britain, France and Australia, had bid for this Rs 5,700-crore project, which will be the first mega highway project in the country.

Australian firm Leighton, Britain's Balforur Beatty and Vinci of France in consortium with Hindustan Construction Company have submitted their bids for the project. On an average construction of one km of a national highway of this type costs around Rs 10 crore.

Last year, road transport and highways minister Kamal nNath had announced that NHAI would invite bids for nine mega road projects, entailing an investment of around Rs 5,000 crore each. The government targets to construct 35,000 km of highways in five years under the National Highways Development Programme, which would require an estimated investment of about $60 billion. Of this, $40 billion is expected to come from the private sector.