Road ministry gives nod to 18 highway projects worth Rs 16,614 crore

The road transport and highways ministry has cleared 18 highway projects having a cumulative length of 982 km to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 16,614 crore. These projects, spread across eight states including Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, would be awarded in the current fiscal and developed using various models like engineering procure and construction (EPC) and hybrid annuity among others over a period of two to two and a half years from the awarding date to the successful bidders. “The standing committee on finance has cleared 18 projects worth approximately Rs 16,614 crore. These are in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” said Sanjay Mitra, highways secretary. The Cabinet had empowered the highways ministry to clear projects worth up to Rs 1,000 crore," a year ago. Of the 18 projects, while eight will be awarded on engineering procurement and construction (EPC) mode where 100% funding will be given by the government, nine will be on the new hybrid annuity model where the government will provide 40% of the construction cost and the developer will invest the remaining 60%. Only one of the project — four laning of the 67-km Dhule to Aurangabad section in Maharashtra — is on the BOT (build-operate-transfer or toll) mode, where the developers puts the entire project cost and recovers his investment by collecting toll over the concession period. “Land acquisition and environment clearance for these projects would be completed by February,” a senior ministry official said. The ministry has set a target of awarding 10,000 km of highways before the end of 2015-16. The construction target has been set at 30 km per day.