National Highways Soon to be Adorned with Shopping Malls, Food Court & Service Centres

BENGALURU: National highways across the nation will soon be flanked by wayside amenities like shopping malls, food courts, dispensaries and car servicing centres at every 50 kilometers. The government has recently issued a policy for such up-market infrastructures to be established under public-private partnership (PPP) and Engineering, Construction and Procurement (EPC) models, according to Economic Times.

In an effort to invite more players, the policy is designed to offer incentives for petrol pump owners if they provide such facilities on their land. “Additional incentives would be provided to petrol pump owners if they set up shower area and multi utility shops on their land,” a senior official at the Road Transport and Highways ministry said. The ministry will also be providing the blueprints for the plans. “We will provide the layout and standard designs covering all minimum facilities to the private parties willing to set up such facilities,” he added.

There will also be a formal written communication distributed to companies to provide with the basic amenities at the highways under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is a form of self-regulation integrated into a business model.

Private parties wanting to contribute towards this can do so by renting out land to the National Highways Authority of India. “If any private person wants to lease out his land to NHAI for such facilities, he would get the share of revenue generated,” the official stated. So far, a proposal has been made by the Government of India to set up over 15,000 such facilities along the existing highways and it will be mandatory for developers to provide facilities on the lines of international standards.

The government is also expected to launch a highway advisory service, which will be a radio channel giving real time updates on traffic movement on the highways.

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