To make highway projects more financially viable, the Union government is again planning to innovate and bring in a new strategy. This time, it is a revamp of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which is on the mind of Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.
While addressing an Assocham webinar, Gadkari on Tuesday said that the government was taking steps to revamp NHAI.
The total length of National Highways at present is abut 150,000 km, or about 2 per cent the length of all the roads, but they carry about 40 per cent of the total traffic.
"We are taking steps to revamp NHAI....major reforms are needed in the Authority," Gadkari said.
The minister said the need of the hour is to devise bankable projects suitable for the market with acute precision and accuracy citing how NHAI devised Rs 5,000 crore highway monetisation projects under TOT (toll-operator-transfer) mode which could only be bid by foreign players.
"It took six months to convince them (the Authority) to come out with small Rs 500 crore packages for asset monetisation under TOT (Toll, Operate and Transfer) as Rs 5,000 crore package could only be bid by foreign players," Gadkari said. "The project mode should be market driven and bankable" and not just which are taken in "boardrooms."
Likewise, instead of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode, the Authority was in favour of BOT mode for building 3,000 km of highways but tenders are not out yet, he said in the webinar on "Covid-19 Impact and Investment Opportunities in Roads and Highways".
Gadkari also cited delays in setting up road side amenities and stressed that the government is planning to set up 2,000 petrol pumps along the highways.
He also expressed displeasure over NHAI seeking time from players for reconciliation of disputes adding that NHAI sought time in 22 such cases.
At the same time the minister said despite decentralisation of powers and empowering project directors and regional officers of NHAI to take decisions for projects up to Rs 50 crore, a large number of such issues were being referred to the headquarters.
He said all transfers in NHAI have been made digital.