Looking at revamping NHAI, says Transport Minister Gadkari

Pitching for greater transparency and faster decision making at the National Highways Authority of India, the government is planning to revamp the roads body.

Addressing a conference here, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said: "A lot of changes are required to be made in NHAI we need to revamp it."

The ministry is studying the proposal of revamping and modernising NHAI.

"We have to bring in more transparency, make decision making time bound and we need to make these efforts to make the sector grow," Gadkari added.

Last time restructuring at NHAI happened in 2009 to enhance its institutional capacity. It was done to make it a multi-disciplinary professional body with quality financial management and contract management expertise.

NHAI was constituted by Parliament through the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988. It became operational in February 1995 and is responsible for the development, maintenance and management of national highways.

The government had targeted awarding 8,000 km of road projects during the current financial year and so far it has been able to award 7,000 km.

A majority of these projects will be built on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) basis.

The current government has also revised the target of increasing road-building capacity to 30 km a day from the current 3 km a day.