The government plans to award as many as 175 highway development contracts on built-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, involving an estimated investment of Rs 76,544 crore by March 2008."By March 2008, about 175 contracts covering a length of 15,803 km are targeted for award on BOT basis under different phases of National Highway Development Projects (NHPD)," Roads Secretary Vijay Singh said at the one-day seminar on infrastructure organised by the Planning Commission. Talking about the total NHDP programme, Singh said the balance projects under the NHDP Phase I and II together with the rest of the phases will incurr an expenditure of almost Rs 2,20,000 crore."As of now, NHDP I, II, 3A, and 5 are in progress," Singh informed the seminar. The balance of the Phase I and II will require a further investment of almost 52,434 crore. "With such a large number of new projects on offer under public private partnership in the road sector, there are immense opportunities for investors, contractors, consultants, etc," Singh said.He informed that out of the 64 contracts awarded under the public-private partnership (PPP) for developing and maintaining the National Highways, 15 contracts involving an investment of 1 billion dollar have been completed so far. About the Golden Quadrilateral project, Singh said almost 93% of the project has been completed and the programme will be officially completed in about a year.
