Expressway regulator plan put on the backburner

The road ministry has shelved plans for setting up an expressway authority, which was to be the regulator overseeing the development of greenfield expressways.

India plans to construct 18,000 km of expressways by 2022.

Transport minister C P Joshi has told ministry officials that work related to the expressways will now be taken up by the ministry and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which will be suitably beefed up for the job.

“It is too early to have a dedicated authority for expressways,” Joshi told DNA.

The NHAI had prepared a draft Cabinet note for the setting up of the authority last year after former transport minister Kamal Nath announced it in 2009. The note had proposed ¤10,000 crore as start-up fund for the authority.

The ministry then was of the opinion that technical as well as financial competencies required for developing expressways are of a larger scale than highways, and that called for a different authority to handle it.

The latest move comes even as the government initiates talks with stakeholders. One of the plans the ministry is considering is to provide land to developers only for paving expressways, while the onus of acquisition of land for real estate development will be on the developer.

Experts said the getting the existing agencies continue the work in the short term is a good idea, but in the long run a dedicated body will be required.

“There are a number of issues related to the expressways such as amount of user fee to be levied and the funding models. Only after the government is able to take a decision on these fronts should it set up a dedicated body. Suppose if they make a new agency first and the expressways don’t come up, it will be a waste,” said M Murali, director general, National Highways Builders Federation.