Rs 15,000 cr expressway plan to be over in two phases

The access controlled expressway plan under the National Highway Development Project, announced in Budget 2006, will be completed in two phases, at a cost of Rs 15,000 crore.

The government will contribute Rs 6,900 crore for the 1,000-km expressways. This will include Rs 1,500 crore prior to the start of work and the cost of the works and 40 per cent viability gap funding amounting to Rs 5,400 crore. The rest will come from the private developer.

The emerging contours of the expressway development project reveal that 600 km will be chosen for a feasibility study in 2007-08 while concessions will be awarded a year later.

"The pre-feasibility reports for six sections will be taken up shortly. Sections with highest traffic density will be chosen," a government official told Business Standard.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had announced in his Budget speech that the new expressways would be built on a new design, build, finance and operate model.

The identified sections are Delhi- Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Meerut, Bangalore-Chennai, Delhi-Agra and Kolkata-Dhanbad expressways as well as other sections where traffic exceeds 40,000 passenger units.

The proposal is part of the development of 1,000 km of expressways under the sixth phase of the National Highway Development Project. The feasibility report of 400-km Mumbai-Vadodara expressway may be prepared in 2006-07 and the concession may be awarded in 2007-08.

"The core group on financing of NHAI, which has been set up under the chairmanship of member secretary, Planning Commission Rajiv Ratna Shah, will factor in the NHDP-VI requirements," the official said.