National Highways Authority of India awards Rs5,414 crore projects

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) last week awarded seven projects worth Rs5,414 crore, spanning over 1,000 km. T

he projects are in Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (Multai-Seoni), Bihar and Jharkhand.
With this, the tally of projects awarded this fiscal goes up to 50, worth Rs35,203 crore and spanning 40,000 km or so.

But, the pace is way low to be able to achieve the target of 100 NH projects worth Rs1,00,000 crore this fiscal.

Transport minister Kamal Nath blames it on long contractual procedures. “We have a system of feasibility studies, and so many other formalities, which are time taking,” Nath told DNA earlier.

With this pace, meanwhile, construction of 20-km of national highway everyday, as envisaged by Nath, looks a far cry. For achieving 20-km a day, which translates into 7,000 km in a year, work in progress of at least 21,000 km is required. However, work in progress as of now stands at 5,000 km.

Experts feel the other factor that will hurt the pace of awarding of the projects now is the concession given to truckers on toll last week by the ministry.

“The ministry is lagging behind the target and they may not be able to catch up in the next three months. Toll cuts announced last week, to appease the transporters threatening to go on nation-wide strike, will have a bearing on the projects undergoing tendering at the moment. The government will have to revisit the feasibility studies as the toll revenue from trucks forms a major part of earning for the developer,” said Vishwas Udgirkar, senior director, Deloitte.