New Delhi : The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is making all-out efforts to speed up the award and construction of highways and could bid out projects for 3,500 km by the end of the month. “NHAI has invited bids for projects of 4,900 km till November, 2017, while bids for another 3,500 km are likely to be invited by December end, taking the total to 8,400 km,” the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement on Wednesday.
It said projects for bidding during January-March 2018 will be identified by the end of the month. “Projects worth Rs 22,100 crore and covering 1,170 km have already been awarded so far and the bids for many other projects are under evaluation,” the statement said. Some of the projects that were bid out this year include the Dwarka Expressway in Delhi, the Varanasi Ring Road Phase-II in Uttar Pradesh, the Khambataki Ghat 6-lane Tunnel on the Pune-Satara Section in Maharashtra, the Jodhpur Ring Road in Rajasthan and an access controlled expressway with connectivity to the Visakhapatnam Port, in Andhra Pradesh.
During the ongoing fiscal, the NHAI has completed 1,566 km length of projects under implementation till November, 2017 (5,060 lane km). “The average, in the last five years, in terms of highway length constructed by the NHAI is 2,175 km with 2,628 km constructed in the 2016-17 fiscal. This year, the NHAI is targeting to construct 3,500 km,” the statement said.
The union government said work on 12 new projects (covering 597 km) has commenced and work on another 38 projects (covering 1,969 km) will start soon. Banks and financial institutions are now showing a keen interest in the hybrid annuity mode, it said. The NHAI is making all-out efforts to achieve its target of awarding 10,000 km during 2017-18, the statement added
Furthermore, the National Highways Authority is also gearing up to meet its target of completing Phase I of the ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’ within the next five years, that is up to 2021-22. Over the past five years, NHAI’s average award has been 2,860 km, with 4,335 km awarded in 2016-17 financial year. While approving the Bharatmala project, the Narendra Modi-led government had authorised the NHAI Board to appraise and approve projects on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis, which constitute 30 per cent of the project. The NHAI is an autonomous agency of the government.
