Road Projects Worth 50,000 to Be Initiated Under PPP in 2016-17

By siliconindia | Monday, 28 December 2015, 11:59 Hrs

BENGALURU: The road transport ministry is all set to initiate the largest chunk of highway projects in 2016-17. Projects worth 50000 crore makes this maximum projects awarded by the ministry under the PPP mode in a single financial year. The projects include portions of religious tourism circuit programme including Char Dham connectivity and the Bharat Mala project. This puts in account the development of roads along international borders and coastal areas as well.

Officials confirm that the ministry is in plan to award 5000km to private companies.

This year, the government is in plan to push 20,000 crore in terms of private investment in the road sector. Projects worth 12,000 crore has already been given out.

A senior government official said, Projects will be awarded mostly under the hybrid annuity model. Some of them will also be given out on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. We are looking at awarding close to 5,000 km to private players."

If looked in the next four year plan, then the government targets to increase the length of highways across India up to 1.5lakh kilometers. The present measure for the same is 1 lakh kilometer. By this fiscal year, construction upto 7000-8000km is expected to happen.

In order to encourage private sector interest in the sector, the government introduces exit policy aimed to improve the availability of equity funds by allowing developers to monetize existing projects. This will allow 100pct equity and exclude functioning BOT projects two years after the completion of construction.