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| Edited By: Ashutosh Kumar |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 02:56 AM IST
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold a review of the progress in the roads and highways sector on May 30.
The surface transport ministry is likely to pitch for a higher allocation from the proposed infrastructure debt fund and apprise the prime minister’s office (PMO) on the progress on expressways.
The PMO has apparently asked the finance ministry, Planning Commission, and the Reserve Bank of India to list the physical progress in the highway projects and the issues related to funding and suggest mechanisms to address them.
A source close to the development told DNA, “Given the long-term funding requirement in the highway projects, the ministry is likely to pitch in the meeting for a higher allocation from the proposed infrastructure debt fund that is under consideration by the finance ministry.”
According to the finance ministry, guidelines for the formation of the fund will be finalised by June this year. The `50,000 crore infrastructure debt fund is likely to be formed using the pension fund and PF.
The transport ministry is also likely to apprise the infrastructure committee headed by the prime minister about the issues it face on the expressway front.
With land acquisition becoming a major hurdle, the expressways project spanning 1,000km and envisaging investments worth Rs16,680 crore, is far from getting into the tendering process.
Meanwhile, as per the 2010-11 figures, the ministry has awarded 44 national highway upgrade projects on public private partnership (PPP) basis connecting a total of 4,425km. This requires as investment to the tune of Rs40,000 crore. This fiscal, the ministry plans to take up projects connecting 7,300km on build, operate and transfer (toll) basis. Another 1,000km will be taken up on annuity basis and an equivalent length of state roads will also be undertaken by ministry. Apart from this, the ministry is also considering greenfield expressways on the alignment of the Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor beginning with Delhi-Chandigarh and Delh-Jaipur.
