Longer-tenure deals for highway maintenance to woo foreign players

Govt identifies 70,000 km of roads that will be offered to private companies

The government will soon come out with uniform contract terms for maintenance of highway streches. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has identified 60,000-70,000 km of roads, which would be offered to private players, including foreign entities, for operation and maintenance.

It is learnt that these contracts would be for three years, and would be offered by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation, and state governments.

Of these, contracts of around 21,000 km would be offered in the first tranche. “Highways totalling 8,000 km will be offered for maintenance, and 13,000 km for strengthening