India to sign MoU with UK for road development

India will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Britain to improve and modernise its road transportation sector, Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said here today.

Briefing newsmen after attending a special session on Indo-British Infrastructure Partnership, organised by the CII and the Commonwealth Business Council here, Nath said, "The MoU will cover various aspects, including safety, training, licensing and inspections."

He said the government is also "looking at a user-friendly yet modern common toll technology and the committee headed by the UID Authority Chairman Nandan Nilekeni will submit the report in the next four months".

Nath also announced constitution of the Indo-British Road Group, the first meeting of which he attended here yesterday.

 

Noting that the next decade will be "the decade of infrastructure" in India, he said, "today we have the largest PPP programme in the world, in which we planned to investment $9 billion to improve airports, $12 billion to modernise ports and $130 billion in the power sector including transmission and distribution."

"We plan to build 7,000 km roads worth $50 billion a year and the work is in progress. We require $10 billion a year each for the next four years to improve our roads, and finance is not a problem."