| From the previously set deadline of March, Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath revised the ambitious target of achieving 20 km of highway construction per day to June.
However, the target will be achieved in June as they lost December and January due to dense fog and are currently at 10 km per day.
Nath had set March 2010 as the deadline for constructing 20 km of highways a day, soon after taking charge of the ministry last May.
This invited criticism from the Plan panel, which termed it as unachievable given the circumstances.
Meanwhile, in a recent communication, the Planning Commission had advised the ministry to fix reasonable targets for roads and highways.
In order to explore cooperation in the road sector, India and Turkey have decided to set up a joint study group.
He also said that they have decided to form a joint study group with Turkey to see where they can collaborate in terms of technology and best practices.
Turkey could also collaborate in other infrastructure segments in the country like ports, airports and railways.
Previously, in order to improve and modernise its road transportation sector, India will soon ink a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Britain stated Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath.
He had attended a special session on Indo-British Infrastructure Partnership, organized by the CII and the Commonwealth Business Council here.
He also said that the MoU will cover various aspects, including safety, training, licensing and inspections.
In order to widen over 1,350 km at an estimated cost of Rs 14,000 crore, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) invited and accepted bids for 17 projects.
However, with suggestions of the committee headed by the Planning Commission Member, Mr B. K. Chaturvedi, the bidding process moved forward after the NHAI tweaked its bidding norms in conformity.
In addition, the government stated that it will award four expressway projects, stretching up to 1,000 km, by the end of the year.
The Transport Ministry had in November 2006 proposed four Expresways--the Vadodara-Mumbai, Bangalore-Chennai, New Delhi-Meerut and Kolkata-Dhanbad-- totaling 1,000 km, to be developed under the National Highways Development Project.
The construction of the proposed network of 18,637 km of expressways in India would cost more than $100 billion. The construction of expressways would cost $100 billion at that time of construction.
Moreover, the Centre approved Rs 9,000 crore for 4 lane Jammu-Srinagar national highway, which would help in smooth traffic movement, apart from easing frequent jams on the highway.
The preliminary work of the project, which includes acquisition of land and forest clearance has almost completed.
However, earlier, the government identified 10 lucrative mega highway projects to be awarded to private developers involving an investment of Rs 45,000 crore and will be awarded in the next 2 years.
These projects covering 5,000 km will be awarded on a revenue-share basis, under which the developers pay a part of the toll earnings to the government.
NHAI already asked prospective bidders to submit their initial ''request for qualification''(RFQ) documents for 2 of these 10 projects spread over Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
On the other hand, NHAI stated that it is negotiating with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a $400-million loan and the deal may get through by the next month.
In order to meet its target of developing 35,000 kms of national highways over the next 5 years, the government needs about Rs 3.31 lakh crore where out of the total requirement of Rs 3.31 lakh crore, about 1.97 lakh crore will come from the private sector and the rest would be arranged by NHAI.
NHAI is responsible for development and maintenance of national highways and it meets its financial requirements through cess on sale of fuel, borrowings from international lending agencies and the financial market.
In addition, it is said that NHAI will need about Rs 1,90,000 crore as borrowings till 2030-31 for the highway development programme.
The work for 37,000 kms needs to be awarded in 5-years starting from 2009-10 in order to achieve the target of building 20 km of roads per day set by Kamal Nath.
This will enable the highway regulator to finish the entire network of so far approved National Highways Development Project (NHDP) by 2017.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, responsible for management of a network of over 60,000 km of National Highways in India. The Authority is a nodal agency of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
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