NEW DELHI: The government has awarded a record length of highway projects of over 15,000 km involving more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore during 2018-19 financial year, ending Saturday. This is set to push the construction, jobs and economic activities in the poll year when government faces the tough questions on employment generation.
The construction figure, which will also be made public next week, is set to be the maximum ever of more than 9,000 km.
Prior to this, though
UPA-II had awarded 10,279 km in 2010-11, many contracts had to be cancelled due to failure on government’s part and that too of the highway builders.
However, the history of 2010-11 won’t get repeated this time as more than two-third of the works have been awarded under engineering procurement and construction mode (
EPC) and government pays the entire amount to the contractors for building
highways.
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which undertakes the major highway development works, said on Saturday that 150 road projects of 7,400 km worth Rs 1.22 lakh crore had been awarded till Saturday.
NHAI has awarded a large chunk of 3,400 km on Hybrid Annuity mode at Rs 76,500 crore.
While award of works under this model has given NHAI more room to push bidding out works, what remains to be seen is how quickly work can start on these stretches since highway builders will have to raise finance within six months before they can start construction. In this model, government takes the risk of collecting toll, pays the full amount for construction and finance cost to the private builders. The private builder maintains the road for the contract period.
Hybrid Annuity was introduced as a new model to attract partial private investment in the sector.
