The letter shared with the media on Saturday comes amid Maharashtra losing several big-ticket projects to neighbouring Gujarat.
NHAI to pull plug on Rs 3,000-crore ventures for poor show
The 100-km stretch of Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway claimed at least 62 lives.
Road construction witnessed a near 60 per cent year-on-year jump in the first two months of financial year 2021-22 (FY22), despite restrictions being imposed in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19. Around 1,470 km of roads were constructed during the first two months of the current fiscal, as against 847 km in the corresponding period last year, according to official figures. However, these are provisional numbers as the state public works departments of Maharashtra and Goa are yet to provide data.
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.
Expressing commitment to augment the country's infrastructure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday proposed to significantly enhance capital expenditure to Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the next fiscal, besides creating institutional structures and giving a big thrust to monetizing assets to achieve the goals of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). Sitharaman said NIP, that was launched in December 2019 with 6,835 projects, has now been expanded to 7,400 projects and around 217 projects worth Rs 1.10 lakh crore under some key infrastructure ministries have been completed. "For 2021-22, I propose a sharp increase in capital expenditure and thus have provided Rs 5.54 lakh crores which is 34.5% more than the BE of 2020-21," the finance minister said.
Over the years, NHAI's expenses have spiraled due to sharp increase in land acquisition costs, while budgetary support has shrunk, leading it to fall back on internal resources and market borrowings
Senior government officials said the company would be allowed a harmonious exit.
NHAI to pay only Rs 175-200 cr as it takes over from concessionaire
To centralise process by setting up special units in each state.
World Bank customarily withdraws fund for a project that has not been built in seven years.
NHAI has already initiated process to handle such emergency situation and also taking all possible measures to avoid such incidents in future, an official statement said on Sunday.
At present, Road Secretary R S Gujral is handling the additional charge of NHAI chairman, the position which has been vacated by Brijeshwar Singh, for three months.
Few big ticket road projects will be fast-tracked soon.
NHAI expected to be debt-free by 2030-31 and added the authority, which raised about Rs 14 billion (Rs 1,400 crore) in 2009-10 through capital gains tax exemption bonds, planned to mobilise Rs 40 billion (Rs 4,000 crore) in the current financial year.
The time taken in land acquisition has been drastically brought down to 12 months from 24 months earlier.
The move, if accepted, will help resolve nearly one-third of the 1,200 cases on payments pending in various courts in the country.
Road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath had said earlier this month after a meeting of an empowered group of ministers that the government wanted to borrow $2 billion.
Fintech giant Paytm claimed it is selling more FASTags than all the banks put together on a daily basis.
The Centre has accorded top priority for cost-effective, pollution-free transportation modes, such as waterways, which reduce logistic costs and increase road safety. Union minister of roads, highways, ports and shipping Nitin Gadkari speaks to Sanjay Jog about the government's strategy.
Cabinet to take up proposal to extend operation & maintenance contracts from 9 to 29 years
The bench comprising Chief Justice Ravi S Dhavan and Justice Shashank Kumar Singh was hearing a PIL filed by an advocate, M P Gupta, alleging that the future of the Golden Quadrilateral Project was in danger.
The Centre's ambitious Rs 6-trillion National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) could fall short of yearly targets for the current fiscal year (FY22) and the next one as well (FY23), partly due to the long gestation period in monetising big-ticket railway infrastructure, Business Standard has learnt from sources in the finance and rail ministries. Officials say the major chunk of railway monetisation will happen from FY24 onwards because leasing some of the infrastructure, like stadiums and dedicated freight corridor, will not happen anytime soon. Rail infra is expected to be the second-biggest contributor to the NMP, with about Rs 1.52 trillion worth of assets to be monetised.
GST rate for petrol and diesel cars and hybrid vehicles is already at the highest bracket of 28 per cent plus cess.
Geo-fencing to map vehicle route; pilot run expected on Delhi-Mumbai highway
In what could be a shot in the arm for the National Highway Development Programme, the National Highway Authority of India is all set to receive a windfall of Rs 471 crore
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
Plans to offer up to 10% of project cost as bonus to highway contractors, compared to 5% at present
A farmers' protest against three farm laws of the Centre, which was continuing on a national highway in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district since December 19 last year, has come to an end with the protesters alleging use of force by police.
This is the first time that highway projects awarded by the NHAI have failed to achieve financial closure.
Corporatisation of NHAI was one of the achievements of the NDA govt.
At a time when some institutions have been dithering over lending to the National Highways Authority of India, doubting its financial strength, the agency is in talks with the country's largest lender, State Bank of India, to borrow up to Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) at 8-8.5 per cent.
According to an official statement, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said the 19 other places in the country include Phalodi-Jaisalmer road and Barmer-Jaisalmer road in Rajasthan, Kharagpur-Balasore road in West Bengal, Hashimara-Guwahati road in Assam, Bhuj-Naliya road in Gujarat, Leh/Nyoma area in Assam and on the Jorhat-Baraghat road, among others.
100-day agenda: Commerce ministry pushes for separate logistics department
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been under attack for delays in completion of its road projects as well as for poor corridor management.
Will be given choice of govt and privately funded modes to put highway projects that didn't get bids under PPP model.
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.
