The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) will raise Rs 10,000 crore from the markets within the next one month to fund the various National Highway projects in the country, C P Joshi, Union minister of road transport and highways, said here on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of Excon 2011, the 6th edition of the international exhibition on earthmoving and construction equipment industry, here on Wednesday, he said, the details of the debt issue are being worked out by the NHAI.
“Just a week ago, the finance ministry gave us approval to raise Rs 10,000 crore through an infrastructure bond issue for construction of highways across the country. It is sufficient for the time being and we will look at raising more funds as and when we take up new road projects,” Joshi said.
He said, the prime minister has set a target of achieving 20 km road construction every day and to achieve this target the government needs to award projects for 7,300 kms every year over the next three consecutive years. “We have so far awarded projects for 4,600 kms this year and the balance will be awarded in the remaining months of this fiscal,” Joshi said.
“We have not been able to achieve 20 km per day, but we are confident of doing it before the next general elections in 2014,” Joshi added.
In the budget for this fiscal (2011-12), Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a provision for the first time to allow NHAI to raise funds as the government’s share of financing the roads sector.
Though the highway authority planned to raise the amount through private placement earlier, rising interest rates had forced it to opt for the public issue.
The proposed fund will be used to partly finance highway projects to be executed on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis and for viability gap funding through which the government pays to make the projects viable financially, he said.
Earlier, delivering his inaugural address, Joshi said the government proposes to spend $17 billion through public-private partnership mode for the development of national highways in the next five years beginning 2012-13.
The pre-condition to achieve the targeted growth rate of 9 per cent during the 12th Plan period is to spend around $1 trillion on infrastructure, he said.
B Muthuraman, vice chairman, Tata Steel and President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said there was a need to increase the share of manufacturing sector in the gross domestic product to 30 per cent from the present 16 per cent if the country desires to achieve higher economic growth.
The 6th edition of Excon, an international earth moving and construction equipment exhibition that started on Wednesday will run up to November 27. The event has attracted 638 Indian and overseas companies in the construction equipment segment.
There are over 200 overseas companies showcasing their products and technologies. It is expected that the event will witness over 200 new product launches during the five-day event.
