Committee to amend PPP agreement for highways

In a bid to woo foreign companies to participate in the development of national highways, the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) will tomorrow make amendments in the model concession agreement for public private partnership (PPP) in national highways.

The committee will take up eight new highway development projects, covering 37,000 km, and allot these in a month's time. The projects, valued between Rs 200 crore and Rs 1,000 crore, will include two-, four- and six-laning of highways.

The national highways, with a total length of 65,569 km, serve as the arterial road network across the country. Passenger traffic in the country is expected to increase by 12-15 per cent and cargo traffic by 15-18 per cent a year.

The four-laning of the 5,900 km-long Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata is nearing completion. The ongoing four-laning of the 7,300 km North-South East-West corridor will be completed by December 2009.

The committee also plans to clear 10,000 km of high density national highways, which will be allotted through the build, operate and transfer (BOT) mode under the National Highway Development Programme-III.

It will also upgrade 20,000 km of highways to two-lane highways under the fourth phase of the programme, at an estimated cost of Rs 25,000 crore. This will ensure that their capacity, speed and safety standards match the minimum benchmarks for national highways.

The committee will also take a decision on the six-laning of 6,500 km highways (NHDP-V), to be completed by 2012. It is also considering to develop 1,000 km of expressways on a BOT basis at an approximate cost of Rs 15,000 crore. These expressways will be constructed under NHDP-VI.

The development of other highways projects (NHDP-VII), which includes development of ring roads, bypasses, grade separators and service roads, is under progress and will help in full utilisation of highway capacity as well as enhance safety and efficiency.