Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday pitched for formulating a policy for using the Reserve Bank of India's rising foreign exchange reserves for funding road projects, saying the country needs low cost finance for such infrastructure projects. Addressing a virtual event organised by industry body CII, Gadkari further said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) should also have a financial arm like the power ministry's Power Finance Corporation (PFC). "We have a surplus of dollar reserves in the country. I have decided to talk with the RBI Governor, about how we can formulate a policy by which we can use this foreign exchange reserves for development of infrastructure in the country," he said.
RInfra, which is sitting on a debt of over Rs 6,000 crore, has been working towards monetising its assets to reduce debt.
Taxpayers need not invest proceeds from sale of property strictly within 180 days from date of sale to get exemption under Section 54EC.
Bringing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products under the single nation-wide GST regime will reduce taxes on these products and increase the revenue of both the Centre and states, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will definitely try to bring petrol and diesel under GST if she gets the support of the state governments, said Gadkari while addressing the Times Now Summit virtually. "In the GST Council, finance ministers of states are also members.
If 2019-20 (FY20) was an unusual year for highway construction in India, with the pace of work slowing down for the first time since the Narendra Modi government assumed power in 2014, largely due to the general elections in May and liquidity crunch, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21 (FY21) only made matters worse with lockdowns and labour unavailability. The pace of highway construction in 2021-22 (FY22) has not been able to bulldoze the pandemic barriers in a year marred by two Covid-19 waves - the second at the start of the fiscal year, the third towards the close. With localised lockdowns and restrictions on mobility, highway construction growth in the country has now fallen to a five-year low.
If India had a road regulator in the late nineties, the capacity-building model based on public-private partnerships would not have been in tatters.
India has the second largest road network in the world, stretching across a distance of 33 lakh kilometres.
Spanning 555 km, the project was to cost Rs 7,500 crore.
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) has asked ministries, government departments, and public sector undertakings (PSUs) to send a list of assets that can be monetised under the proposed National Monetisation Pipeline. The list will be used for creation of an asset monetisation dashboard, which will keep a track of such assets. The government, meanwhile, has asked CRISIL to prepare a road map for monetising assets of PSUs and government departments.
The company also needs to get its power plants going if it wants to reduce its debt burden.
NH-925 is India's first national highway to be used for emergency landing of IAF aircraft.
'Some districts have said that areas which are away from the urban centres and where there have been minimal to zero Covid-19 cases may be exempted from the lockdown and construction activity should be allowed,' said a person in the know.
The company on Monday said, in a communication to the stock exchanges, that it had terminated an agreement it had with the National Highways Authority of India.
Of the cash outgo, Rs 64,598 crore is for enhanced expenditure on fertiliser subsidy under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 3.0 and Rs 20,466 crore for the capital outlay in defence services.
The most pernicious abuse of the toll system is the VIP syndrome. Most toll plazas carry a long list of VIP vehicles that are exempt from payment and others have to compensate for them.
The National Highways Authority of India and the road transport and highways ministry are currently engaged in appraisal of the request for qualifications, said a senior ministry official.
'Pakistan has made a business out of faith. How will a poor devotee pay this amount?'
This is the first time that highway projects awarded by the NHAI have failed to achieve financial closure.
World Bank customarily withdraws fund for a project that has not been built in seven years.
"We have conveyed this to the road transport ministry. We go for environment approval for all land we acquire, but land with environment issues requires more approvals," said a senior NHAI official, who did not want to be identified.
The road transport ministry has asked the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to ascertain the findings of a report by the World Bank's Institutional Integrity Unit. According to the report, contractors paid bribes and gifts to influence the actions of NHAI officials and consultants.
According to senior officials of the National Highways Authority of India, this project is part of a larger 245-km highway development project connecting Hyderabad and Solapur.
India was among the top-five economies with the largest general government capital stock level, said, in 2015, an International Monetary Fund report called "Making Public Investment More Efficient". The report fuelled a debate on countries sitting on piles of cash that could be used better. India was believed to have public assets worth $4.5 trillion. The report urged countries to start asset recycling. Six years after the report, Australia's success in asset recycling has turned India into a believer; despite doing averagely in its previous efforts on roads, railways or meeting its divestment targets.
The National Highways Authority of India and the road transport ministry together have constructed 1,314 km of highways in the current financial year till August 31.
Expressway construction is part of the sixth phase of the National Highways Development Programme.
IRFC, NHAI, Hudco and others to hit the market in next few months.
Senior finance ministry official said the economic affairs department cleared the proposals on Friday.
If the BJP doesn't do something quickly, Anurag Thakur and P K Dhumal will be the ones having a quiet last laugh.
The Union finance ministry has endorsed the views of Gajendra Haldea, infrastructure advisor to the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, who had objected to recent changes in bidding norms by the National Highways Authority of India.
At the heart of his criticism is the delay in decision making and a lack of monitoring. Some officials, however, blamed the delays on overambitious contractors.
Roads are becoming smarter even if the people driving on it are not. A set of smart technologies is making construction, maintenance, and traffic management much more efficient.
Consumption of cement, steel, and bitumen is to get a boost of Rs 42,000 crore (Rs 420 billion), as the National Highways Authority of India has announced to award 7,994 km of highway projects in the current financial year.
The government began the selection process a year earlier and has twice gone through the process of short-listing candidates.
Updates on the NHAI activities will be available on Facebook, including information on its targets and achievements, among other things.
The agitating farmers had earlier said they would picket toll plazas to press their demand for a repeal of the three new laws, which were voted through in Parliament in September amid strong protests by opposition parties.
After the Planning Commission rejected its financing plan for the second time, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is preparing a new draft plan. The earlier proposals were rejected citing that NHAI would find it difficult to borrow funds from the market.
A report by a senior official in the Planning Commission has said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is heading towards bankruptcy, as its debt is set to increase five times in the next three years.
Section 54EC bonds give positive returns, despite a lock-in and tax on interest income.
The meeting lasted for about two hours and a host of issues pertaining to the building of the corridor were discussed, an official said.
The CBI had registered a case against the four for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy and engaging in corrupt practices in the award of contract.
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