In a major thrust to road construction in the country, the Government is planning to raise over Rs3 lakh crore for road projects this year as it looks to double the highway construction to 30 km per day.
“The Ministry is looking at awarding projects worth about Rs3 lakh crore through the Public-private partnership (PPP), hybrid, or EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) model in the next six months,” said an official from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
However, with private funding almost drying up, the Centre is now eyeing overseas financing to breathe life into the infrastructure sector. During the last four years, road developers have given up on several projects due to delayed execution which had led to debts and non-performing assets.
Hybrid mode is a new form of investment where the Government bears the upfront construction costs — up to 40 per cent — and the rest is borne by the developer.
“Japan has offered India a soft loan of Rs2 lakh crore for investing in infrastructure, which will be formalised after discussions during Nitin Gadkari visit to Tokyo later this year,” he said.
The MoRTH officials also visited Malaysia last month to invite them to bid under the hybrid mode for infrastructure projects. “Officials from Malaysia are expected to come to India next month to bid for infra-projects,” he said.
In addition, early next month he will call a meeting of top bankers to deliberate on ways to attract foreign investors as well as pension and insurance funds to invest in infra projects.
“The Government is intent on selling 5,000 km road projects — worth about Rs1 lakh crore — and a high-level meeting of top bankers will be held within a fortnight where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would be present,” said the official.
Also on the anvil are expressways from Hyderabad to Bengaluru and Amritsar to Katra, he said. Currently, the road building average has reached about 12 kms a day, which a little less than the halfway mark, but the government is positive about achieving 30 kms average in another six-eight months.
“The pace of construction has picked up from 6 kms last year to about 12 kms at present. We are looking at achieving 14 km per day by May end. The target is to reach a road building target of 30 km per day by the end of two years,” said the official, voicing Gadkari’s ambitions.