The highway authority's annual toll earning for 2009-10 was in the range of Rs 1,700 crore (Rs 17 billion) from 141 public-funded toll plazas in the country.
Raut was responding to a reporter's question about opposition parties' claim that Gadkari was targeted through the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on alleged irregularities in the work done by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
Under the new regulations, known as the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Amendment Rules, 2024, fees will now be charged on the actual distance travelled if the distance exceeds 20 kilometres.
Armed with permission to issue Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) of tax-free bonds in 2011-12, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will issue the first lot worth Rs 2,500 crore by mid-May.
NHAI had earlier planned to go for private placement in order to raise funds faster but later decided to go in for the public issue due to the prevailing interest rate scenario.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
The government needs about Rs 3.31 lakh crore (Rs 3.31 trillion) to meet its target of developing 35,000 kms of national highways over the next five years.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated a 418 feet national flag, the tallest in the country, at the Attari-Wagah border in Punjab's Amritsar district.
rediffGURU T S Khurana answers readers' personal income tax queries.
While activity in the highway segment has been slow, the bid pipeline saw recovery in January 2024, and awards are expected to improve in Q4FY24. The national highway (NH) bid pipeline has recovered from a low of Rs 15,900 crore in December 2023 to Rs 68,400 crore at present. The NHAI's pipeline stands at Rs 66,100 crore, with hybrid annuity model (HAM), build operate transfer (BOT) and engineering procurement and construction (EPC) projects accounting for 60 per cent, 29 per cent and 13 per cent share, respectively.
The National Payments Corporation of India on Thursday granted approval to Paytm-owner One97 Communications Ltd to participate in UPI as a Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) under the multi-bank model. Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, and YES Bank will act as Payment System Provider (PSP) banks to Paytm.
Rat-hole mining may be illegal but the talent and experience of rat-hole miners were used in the rescue operation to save the 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel, a National Disaster Management Authority member said on Tuesday.
The economic reforms started by Singh as the finance minister in 1991 gave a new direction to India as it ushered in a liberal economy, Gadkari said.
According to experts, slopes in Himachal have become highly vulnerable to landslides due to cutting of rocks at the foothills and the lack of proper drainage system, and high intensity rainfall is making the things worse for the state.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the government will approach the capital market this month to raise funds for road projects. Addressing an event, he said toll revenue of the NHAI will soar to Rs 1.40 lakh crore per annum in next three years from Rs 40,000 crore per annum currently. "This month, I will be approaching the capital market to raise funds for road projects...Our toll income is very good and NHAI's rating is AAA...I am 100 per cent sure that we will get a good response from the capital market," the Road Transport and Highways minister said.
'The revenue projection arises out of all sectors doing well and the formalisation of the economy helps in making sure the tax domain gets widened.'
Capital expenditure by 54 large central public sector enterprises and five departmental arms, having a capex minimum target of Rs 100 crore, rose 93 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in the April-May period to Rs 1.39 trillion. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Railways have started this financial year's capex cycle on a stronger note. In the first two months of FY24, the 54 CPSEs, along with the departmental arms, achieved 19 per cent of their combined budget target of Rs 7.33 trillion, Business Standard has learnt.
Machinery and manpower have been deployed, but stones falling from the hills are obstructing the road opening work, the officials said.
State-owned NHAI has created a Guinness World Record for the longest continuously laid bituminous lane of 75 kilometres in 105 hours and 33 minutes on the national highway between Amravati and Akola districts in Maharashtra. Mentioning about the record, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the project was implemented by 720 workers including a team of independent consultants who worked day and night. The total length of the 75 kilometres of single lane continuous bituminous concrete road is equivalent to 37.5 kilometres of two-lane paved shoulder road and the work started on June 3, at 7:27 am and was completed on June 7, at 5 pm, the minister said in a video message.
Bommai rejected all the key infrastructure related proposals of Kerala, saying it will damage the eco-sensitive zones and wildlife sanctuaries.
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.
We need to have patience as it is a dangerous operation,NDMA member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said.
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.
Switching off the engine affects the vehicle's braking ability and this possibly resulted in the truck hitting other vehicles on the bridge slope on Sunday, as per a probe conducted into the accident by the Regional Transport Office (RTO), he said.
Gadkari said the NHAI was working on setting up an InvIT to monetise its projects for mobilising resources through capital markets.
With the bodies of all the missing workers recovered, the two-day rescue operation ended late on Saturday evening.
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.
"I am shocked why it was not followed. This is even there in the manual of the Indian Road Congress. Had that been followed then there would have been no casualties. There have been gross violations," Maitra said.
If 4,000 workers could work round the clock for the construction of the new Parliament building, then there is no reason why all infrastructure projects too cannot follow that model, asserts Dr Sudhir Bisht.
Infrastructure assets worth over Rs 1.62 lakh crore are expected to be monetised during the current fiscal, Parliament was informed on Monday. The government had last year announced a Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors, ranging from power to road and railways in four years till 2025. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said about Rs 97,000 crore worth of public assets were monetised in the last fiscal (2021-22).
As even bigger road construction players are not willing to bet on BOT projects., NHAI will have to rethink its thrust on the BOT model.
Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said his ministry can address the water woes faced in parts of the country.
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.
FASTag is a prepaid tag, affixed on vehicle's windscreen, that enables automatic deduction of toll charges and lets the vehicle pass through the toll plaza without stopping for the cash transaction.
Only NIIF has stayed the course as a viable infrastructure financing institution.
Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday raised the rating outlook for 18 Indian corporates and banks, including Reliance Industries, Infosys, SBI and Axis Bank, to 'stable' from 'negative'. This follows the upgrade by the US-based rating agency in India's sovereign rating outlook to 'stable' from 'negative' on Tuesday. The agency had affirmed the sovereign rating at 'Baa3'.
Maharashtra Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP Milind Deora has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Rs 12,000 crore spent by Mumbai's civic body on road works between 2017 and 2022.
Industry players, who do not want to come on record, say this state of affairs is hampering NHAI's functioning.
The government began the selection process a year earlier and has twice gone through the process of short-listing candidates.
