Modi to review highway projects on July 2

June 30, 2015 | 06:12 PM | 3 Views
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Narendra Modi has called a meeting to review the status of highway projects on July 2, prompting the Nitin Gadkari-led road ministry to prepare a presentation that will emphasise on important policy initiatives taken in the ministry that has been at the forefront of reviving investments in infrastructure under this government. The ministry officials are confident of presenting a good progress report to the prime minister. "We have taken conscious steps to deal with the challenges the road sector is facing. We are seeing results in the bidding trends already," a senior government official said. The road ministry is in the process of receiving bids for close to 700 km stretch of projects worth Rs 9,200 crore on build-operate-transfer (BOT)-toll mode. The amount is more than the total award of 733 km at Rs 6,300 crore through the same route last year. In 2013-14, only two projects with aggregate length of 221 km could be awarded on BOT-toll mode. The government has allocated Rs 42,913 crore for the highways sector in the budget for the current fiscal, up from Rs 28,881 crore in 2014-15, to ensure greater participation in road building in absence of private investment. The industry has given the thumbs up to the government's initiative. "There is a lot of action and new projects are coming up for bids. Some small hurdles are left which are also being sorted out now," said Satish Parakh, managing director of Ashoka Buildcon.

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