Government to take PPP route to step-up road construction projects

The government is planning to bid out six mega road projects across, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra at a total estimated investment of Rs30,000 crore starting December.

The first project will have an estimated outlay of about $1 billion, according to transport minister Kamal Nath. The minister was speaking to media persons on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit on Sunday.

The centre will also explore setting up of an Alternate Dispute Tribunal to settle issues raised by contractors, facilitation of land acquisition and relevant issues raised by investors relating to investment in road finance sector.

Nath also said an Expressways Authority of India would be set up next year to look at the specific demands of developing expressways. Nath said that by next year the government would set up a separate expressway authority while expressing that road construction activity would touch the 8-9 km per day mark in the country by next month and the targeted 20km per day would be achieved by the end of the current financial year.

With 3.3 million kilometres of roads India has the second largest road network in the world, however the shortage of highways has been a major constraint for foreign investment in the country.

Of the 71,000 kilometres of national highways, 16,000 kms are single-lane roads.