After making inroads into several infrastructural projects and other businesses in India, China is now eyeing construction of world class highways and roads across the country.
A high-level delegation from the China Railway Construction Corporation limited (CRCC) called on the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) chairman Raghav Chandra on Tuesday and expressed its keenness in participating in the road sector.
The NHAI discussed current projects like upgradation of two-lane NHs totaling 50,000 km and various special expressway projects of
around 15,000 km with the Chinese team. led by Chief Economist Zhao Jinuha, the CRCC team expressed interest to participate in the upcoming projects of NHAI.
CRCC is a China Government enterprise and is one of world's largest integrated engineering contractor and construction group with over 100 billion US Dollars of revenue and a market capitalisation of around 250 billion
US Dollars. The enterprise apart from being the major contributor to China's high-speed and normal, alpine and plateau railways, has provided survey and design services for highways, urban rail transit, real estates and other infrastructure projects.
The NHAI also pointed out its plans for various other connectivity projects in India like bypasses and ring roads around major cities, contributing towards the Smart Cities Projects. According to sources, Chandra also discussed about the recent policy changes in the sector for implementing the highways construction programme, especially the introduction of hybrid annuity model, where the public-private -partnership moves in tandem with the requirements of sustained progress focusing on risk mitigation.
The visiting delegation enquired about the acceptance of the Chinese technical standards and simultaneously NHAI clarified that they would be acceptable only if they are higher than the prescribed standards of Indian Road Congress.
The Chinese delegates were keen on knowing about any restrictions on sources of procurement from abroad, import certifications requirements, whether US Dollars could be the currency of repayment (as annuity), availability of repayment guarantee and proof of capacity of the client (NHAI) to repay (i.e. to pay the annuity and the funding under the Hybrid Annuity Model) to provide comfort to their lenders.
NHAI officials presented an overview of policy, procedures and risk and responsibilities distribution between the private and public partners and provided clarifications addressing the queries of the Chinese delegates.