Centre tries to fix road sector

The decision was taken in a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Wednesday. “The Cabinet has taken a very bold decision to allow the ministry of road transport and highways to go into the merits of each case and wherever the delays are not attributable to the developer, to extend the tolling period if that should be required and take such measures, which will once again revive these toll projects and get them to operation,” said Mr Piyush Goyal, the minister for coal and power, told the media after the meeting said.

He said the Cabinet has also given its approval for authorising NHAI to allow extension of concession period for all current projects in BOT (Toll) mode that are languishing during the construction period due to causes not attributable to the concessionaire. These would be subject to conditions that include the tenure of the operations period as envisaged originally in the concession agreement may remain unchanged.

While welcoming the decision, the National Highaway Builders Federation (NHBF), a body of road builders, claimed the government’s decision will meet just about 30 per cent of their demands.

Speaking to this newspaper, Mr. M. Murali, director general, NHBF, said, “We have been asking the government to give us our claims raised of cost escalation. This usually amounts to around 20 per cent per annum.”

However, this matter, he said, is still under consideration of the government. Explaining further, Mr Murali said, “What the government has done though today’s announcement is just extend the concessionaire period by one or two years, depending on the delay in the project that is attributable to the government.”

Taking note of such difficulties and with a view to minimise levels of decision making, the CCEA has also empowered the ministry of road transport and highways to decide on the change in the mode of delivery of individual NH projects.