In order to propel growth in the infrastructure sector, which has been in a bad shape for the last few years, the Government on Monday said that it was in the process of creating a shelf of 500 ready-to-bid projects worth `3 lakh crore.
Minister for Roads, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that this exercise of creating a shelf of ready-to-bid projects was in addition to the Government rolling out `1.8 lakh crore worth of projects out of `2.8 lakh crore stuck projects.
“We are going to have 500 projects worth more than `3 lakh crore ready with processes like land acquisition, forest clearance and other clearances,” said Gadkari. He was addressing an Infrastructure summit, organised by Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) here.
A separate section has been created in the Ministry to prepare detailed project reports (DPR) to keep a vigil on the progress of all on-going projects, he said. Putting the onus for poor development of the sector on the previous UPA regime, Gadkari said the sector was hit hard during the last decade owing to faulty policies.
“We have to move forward and corrective measures are on. So far, we have been able to launch `1.8 lakh crore worth of projects out of `2.8 lakh crore, which were stuck due to regulatory hurdles and delays in land acquisition,” he said.
Out of the remaining `1 lakh crore projects, the contractors wanted golden handshake for `50,000 crore projects, he said.
“We already have a mechanism to solve all discrepancies. We are also working on a justified model concession agreement, which will be in place soon,” he said. adding the Government was working on building long-durable concrete roads using iron ore slags, which would also make the construction cost-effective.
The Minister exuded confidence that his Ministry will achieve 30-km a day road building target and would contribute two per cent to the GDP in coming years. Gadkari said electronic toll system would be installed pan-India which is expected to result in a saving of `86,000 crore annually including `60,000 crore due to fuel loss as a result of delays.