MP to look at public-private model for road projects

There's good news for road developers and cement manufacturers. The Union government has accepted the state government's request to de-notify some road projects.

As a result the state will be able to take the build-operate-transfer (BOT) public-private partnership for these roads. New work, at an expense of Rs 60 crore, under the central road fund scheme have also been sanctioned.

State government officials were not in a position to disclose the exact investment potential. If roughly estimated, however, the state will be able to attract more than Rs-2,000 crore investment through the new BOT projects.

While inaugurating the Rs-17.14 crore Bhopal-Sehore four-lane road here today, the Union minister for surface transport said, "my ministry has accepted the request of the government of Madhya Pradesh to de-notify Bhopal Dewas Section of NH-86 and Lebad-Nayagaon section of NH-79. Now, the state can take up BoT projects on these roads."

He said, "It has also been decided to permit the Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation to take up the four-laning of the Gwalior-Dewas section of NH-3 on BOT-basis provided the state gets the detail feasibility report prepared for the section and proves its viability on BOT basis."

The Union ministry is also willing to consider the state government's request for permission to take up four-laning of Jabalpur Lakhnadaun section of NH-7 on BOT basis.

The entire north-south corridors will be four-laned. As part of this NH-3 from Rajasthan border to Gwalior, NH-75 from Gwalior to Jhansi, NH-26 from Jhansi to Lakhnadaun, NH-7 from Lakhnadaun to Maharashtra border, NH-25 from Jhansi to Shivpuri and NH-76 from Shivpuri to Rajasthan border are being four-laned.

"The total length of the roads being taken up under the north-south and east-west corridors in Madhya Pradesh is 653 km. Under the newly announced National Highway Development Project Phase-III, eight stretches covering 801 km have been approved for four-laning in Madhya Pradesh," the minister said.

The minister has also taken Indore-Khalghat sections and has decided to include the Khalghat-Maharashtra border section of NH-3 under NHDP phase-III A for its expeditious execution. A stretch from Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border, up to Thane under NHDP phase-III A will connect Indore to Mumbai.

Madhya Pradesh has a national-highway length of 4,677 km, of which, 2,163 km have been added since 1991. The state has 7.74 km of national highways per lakh population as against the national average of only 6.43 km per lakh population.