Minister for Roads, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari is seeking an increase in budget allocation for the infrastructure sector. In fact, he said there was a need to double the road budget to get the stuck-up projects moving.
“Ideally, we would want the Finance Minister to double our budget this year. Projects worth several thousand crores are stuck as the private investors do not want to put money in the sector,” Gadkari told The Pioneer.
“We plan to complete most of our stuck road projects under the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction mode), where we will fund all the pending projects from our kitty,” he said.
In the interim budget announced by the outgoing Government, the infrastructure sector got a boost of 8.6 per cent during 2014-15. Conceding that India’s infrastructure sector has been plagued by severe shortage of capacity across sectors, former Finance Minister P Chidamabaram had said that the Government would spend Rs 1,81,134 crore as against Rs 1,66,756 crore spent in 2013-14.
Gadkari said that he also plans to complete 90 per cent land acquisition before doling out work contracts, so even that will require funds.
He has also proposed to pay an upfront amount to landowners instead of providing alternative land compensation, as it could only lead to delays and unwanted litigation.
“Although we have started our corporation for financing road projects and our officials are already in talks with international markets to get loans at low interest rates, it will take time. Meanwhile, if we have a greater allocation of funds, we can at least get the ball rolling,” he said.
The Ministry has approved road projects worth over Rs 40,000 crores, which are to be completed in the next two years.
For Jammu and Kashmir, the Government has allotted projects worth Rs 20, 000 crores, which includes two tunnels and 2 and 4-lane highways for connectivity in ladakh and leh regions.
For north-east, the Ministry has sanctioned a Rs 15,000 crore package, besides approving Rs 6,000 crores for building a new road network of National Highways in flashfloods ravaged State of Uttarakhand.
For Himachal Pradesh, the Minister has given his go-ahead for building separate back and forth routes between Kullu and Manali.