Banks not willing to fund road projects: Gadkari

Banks are not willing to fund road projects and PPP projects in the sector are suffering as private players are reluctant to pitch in, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in Lok Sabha today.
He said due to reduced GDP in the recent past, the tariff being recovered from highways has also gone down, making the sector unviable for PPP projects.
He said even banks are reluctant to fund road projects. But in a bid to convince banks, he had met some top bankers yesterday and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also likely to hold a similar meeting.

He said private companies like L and T were reluctant to take up projects despite repeated requests.
Responding to supplementaries, he said the earlier policy of allowing operators to collect toll after 70 per cent completion of work has been changed. Now they have to complete the project 100 per cent before they are allowed to collect toll.
He said while the target of the NDA government is to construct 30 km of roads per day, in July not a single km of road was constructed. He said the results of the fast construction will show results in the next two years.

Gadkari also said government will make all out efforts to overcome hurdles in speedy completion of various highway projects in the country with active cooperation of state governments.
He said land acquisition and getting environmental clearance were the two key problems in non-completion of many of the road projects.