Env Minister gives clearance to many road projects
The environment minister has given green signal to around 3,265 km of road projects which were on hold for about two years.
The cost of these stuck road projects is worth Rs 28,663 crore. In 2011, the forest minister made environment and forest clearances compulsory for starting construction of highways. These clearances were made mandatory after the judgement of Supreme Court on cement major Lafarge. Earlier the contractors secured only environment clearance to start construction at stretches.
According to a senior ministry official, the extension of the Supreme Court’s Lafarge decision on highway projects stalled total 23 projects. Following this, many bidders also withdrew their bid. Construction work is expected to begin soon as funds were already alloted.
Few major projects include Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ajmer project (Rs 5,387 crore), Amravati to Maharashtra-Gujarat border project (Rs 4,506 crore), Jabalpur-Rewa project (Rs1,900 crore) which would be implemented by GMR Infrastructure, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd and Soma Tollway Ltd respectively.
23 projects won bids on the basis of negative viability gap funding (revenue sharing model). It is the premium that a bidder offers to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which is either an upfront payment or in the form of revenue sharing.
The ministry officials are still not clear about the fate of the projects in which the bids were withdrawn. On one hand, GVK withdrew Shivpuri-Dewas project (Rs3,000 crore ) and on the other hand, GMR withdrew Udaipur project (Rs 5,387 crore) in January 2013.
Only 850 km projects have been awarded in current fiscal against a target of 9,000 km of projects. The ministry is expecting to construct 4600 km in coming fiscal with 12.6 km of build outs a day.
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