Concern raised over road ministry’s decision by NHAI
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has raised concerns over the road ministry’s decision to put on hold its proposal for allowing full equity divestment in public-private partnership (PPP) projects, arguing that a stressed promoter can be harmful for the project.
In a letter to the ministry, NHAI has said that it had convinced private equity funds such as SBI Macquarie and foreign pension funds to invest in completed road projects, but they have not been able to move ahead as the ministry has not cleared NHAI’s proposal.
NHAI said several companies, including Piramal Enterprises, Tata Group and Reliance Infrastructure, have also shown interest in taking over completed road projects. Keeping a stressed promoter to stay in a project is harmful for the project a senior NHAI official said on condition of anonymity. He should be allowed to bring in more capable operators.
The work on these roads must been done quickly in order to do with the maintenance and other issues that are being faced by the National Highways Authority of India.
Source: The Economic Times
National Highways Authority of India, NHAI, Piramal Enterprises, Public-private partnership, public-private partnership model, Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Group
