Govt requires Rs 1.4 lakh cr to meet road targets for FY17

Govt has set a target of completing 15,000 km of road in FY17 from 6,061 km in FY16

Government will need about Rs 1.4 lakh crore to achieve its target of constructing 15,000 kms of road in this financial year (FY17), NITI Aayog said in a report.

According to the report on targets for the infrastructure sector for 2016-17, Rs 70,000 crore should be raised through Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) and Internal Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR), a senior government official said.

"Then through various cess, the target for Road Ministry is to raise about Rs 33,000 crore, through tolls Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 27,000 crore from private investment," he added.

The government has set a target of completing 15,000 km of road in FY17 from 6,061 km in 2015-16. It also aims to award 25,000 km of road projects this FY17 from 10,098 km a year ago.

Of the total length of National Highways targeted, 15,000 km would fall under the NHAI and 10,000 km under the Ministry and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL).

National Highways Authority of India's target for construction has been fixed at 8,000 km while for the Ministry and NHIDCL, the target is 7,000 km.

For the 2016-17 budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has allocated Rs 55,000 crore for roads and highways. This will be further topped up by an additional Rs 15,000 crore to be raised by NHAI through bonds.

The total investment in the road sector, including PMGSY (Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojna) allocation, would be Rs 97,000 crore during 2016-17.

The speeding up of road projects has been made possible due to policy interventions such as ministry being empowered to decide mode of delivery, increased threshold for project approval, enhanced inter-ministerial coordination, Exit Policy and innovative models such as the Hybrid Annuity Model.

Other steps included amendments to the Model Concession Agreement for BOT projects, segregation of Civil Cost from Capital Cost for NH projects for appraisal and approval, rationalised compensation to concessionaires for languishing NH projects in BOT mode for delays not attributable to them.

India has the second largest road network of 5.23 million km in the world and consists of 200 km of expressways, about 1 lakh km of national highways, 1.31 lakh km of state highways and other roads. About 65 per cent of freight and 80 per cent of passenger traffic is carried by the roads.

National Highways constitute only about 2 per cent of the road network but carry about 40 per cent of the total traffic.