Government of India has set up plan to build 25,000 km National Highways by 2016-17 eventually increased by 10,000 km which was built in 2015-16. Ministry of Transportation stated the fact on Wednesday April 20, 2016. Government authorities are ready to accept the challenge and that too 2.5 times more in comparison to previous records.
“Ithas fixed a 2.5 times increase in the target for award and construction of national highways for the year 2016-17.Encouraged by the good performance in 2015-16, expressing confidence that the pace of development that was established last year will result in even better outcomes during the current year.”
The construction work will be initiated from the fiscal year as a target has been set for 15,000 km out of which 6,000 km has already started from 2015-16. The highways will come under National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) where as the remaining 10,000 km will be constructed under National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDC).
The projects have been completed in a speedy manner and it was only possible due to cooperation by Government of India. Also, construction of 6,000 km in 2015-16 was the most successful project of the year.
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According to Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, “The speeding up of road projects has been made possible due to several policy interventions which include the Ministry being empowered to decide mode of delivery, increased threshold for project approval, enhanced inter-ministerial coordination exit policy.NHAI’s target for construction has been fixed at 8,000 km, while for the ministry and NHIDCL, the target is 7,000 km.”
Apart from roadways projects Government of India is planning to promote other innovative structured policies such as Hybrid Annuity Model, Model Concession Agreement, Build Operate Transfer, and so on which can be implemented during the right phase.
