Rs. 1-lakh cr. highway projects to be awarded this year

Gadkari says by March-end, 30 km of roads would be laid a day

The Union government has set a target of awarding highway projects estimated at Rs. 1 lakh crore this year and Rs. 5 lakh crore in the next four years, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told The Hindu in an interview.

He said the government had scaled up highway construction in the country — the work was now progressing at the rate of 14 km a day from the 2 km a day during the rule of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. Mr. Gadkari said the target was 30 km daily by March-end.

“At one point, there were stalled road projects estimated at Rs. 3.8 lakh crore … We have moved forward quite a lot. Forty-one projects have been terminated outright, and their tenders have been reissued … Problems affecting projects worth Rs. 2.2 lakh crore have been solved … Only 20-25 projects are still stuck,” Mr. Gadkari said.

At a time when the Reserve Bank of India has said that the infrastructure sector is stressed, Mr. Gadkari said there was a good response from the private sector and funding was not a problem. “Last year, three PPP [public-private partnership] projects were awarded. This year, we have already awarded nine such projects.”

Since this government came to power, almost all debt-ridden companies had been slowly coming out of it, Mr. Gadkari said. “Those people who wanted to quit this sector, for example L&T, which said it won’t work on road projects, have taken up projects in Madhya Pradesh,” he said. “If investment in infrastructure is strong, then the economy will become stronger. The road and ports sectors are targeted to contribute 2 per cent to the GDP by March-end.”

Referring to the deadlock and lack of progress during the recently concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament, Mr. Gadkari said that two Bill relating to his Ministry — the Inland Waterways Bill and the Road Safety Bill — would now be likely tabled in the Winter Session.

The Inland Waterways Bill will enable 101 rivers in India to be converted into waterways. China has 47 per cent of its transport on inland waterways, while India has only 3.5 per cent. The plan, Mr Gadkari said, is to build 850 new small ports along the waterways and dredge the rivers to enable transport.

The Cabinet has to clear the Road Safety Bill before its introduction in Parliament. “There are five lakh road accidents a year in India and three lakh people are killed in it and another three lakh injured annually. We want to have a Road Safety Bill which is on a par with international standards,” Mr. Gadkari said.