PM may review Rs 172,000 cr highway plan

With the possibility of the imposition of a cess to implement the recommendations of the infrastructure committee looming large, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have directed a review of the proposals for road development plan.

The call for review assumes significance as the national toll-based model has been found unviable by the national advisory council.

Singh's directive follows reservations expressed by the council, headed by United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, which is of the opinion that the implementation of the recommendations may have an adverse political fallout as most of the projects in the Rs 172,000 crore programme are continuation of the National Democratic Alliance regime's road development plan, according to government officials.

The Left parties have also expressed concern over the toll-based model, which will be accomplished mainly through private participation.

Since a major part of the programme was based on private participation, toll was an important component for deciding the size and magnitude of the network and as such the viability of such a model was subject to serious scrutiny, the sources said.

The road transport ministry is slated to send the multi-crore project to the Cabinet for its nod in April.

The project, to be completed in the next seven years, will include the next two phases of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP), including the construction of national highways, ring roads, bypasses and expressways.

For funding the road development programme, budgetary support will be ensured besides considering funding from multilateral aid agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

The National Highways Authority of India will be strengthened and given more independence to borrow from the market. It would become a multi-disciplinary agency with independent directors, sources said.

The ministry of surface transport will award contracts for 30 build-operate-transfer projects by July and a model concession agreement for such projects will also be finalised by April.

To sort out the inter-ministerial issues impeding the development of national highways, an empowered committee under the Cabinet secretary would try to come out with a solution by April, they said.

Under the third phase of NHDP, 10,000 km of highways will be added to connect state capitals with the golden quadrilateral, north-south and east-west corridors.

Ports, heritage sites and industrial hubs, too, will be connected to the Golden Quadrilateral and the corridors in the third phase.

In the fourth phase, 20,000 km of highways will be two-laned, part of Golden Quadrilateral will be six-laned and 10,000 km of express highways will be constructed.

Anti-toll move

• The NAC is of the opinion that the implementation of the recommendations may have an adverse political fallout as most of the projects are continuation of the previous govt's plans
• The Left parties are against the toll-based model, which will be accomplished primarily through private participation
• The project, to be completed in the next seven years, will include the next two phases of the National Highway Development Programme, including the construction of national highways, ring roads, bypasses and expressways