Road regulator a blessing for highway sector
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has announced setting up of a regulator for roads in the new Union Budget is a blessing in disguise for the Indian highway sector.
According to experts, now the highway sector will have a regulator to resolve the issues. Many disputes have gone to the court due to the absence of the regulator and one of the most talked incidents was the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, where toll collection was stalled for more than a month.
The present dispute redressal method is quite tough and costly. Many issues arise because the National Highways Authority of India is not able to address them.
They also claimed that NHAI can also be a party, which in most cases involve the concession agreement of the road project and that is the reason it cannot be neutral.
According to the NHAI engineer’s reports, there are many difference between completion of a project, change in the scope of the project and in concession time period increases, which are sought when the land acquisition gets delayed.
There are also possibilities that the number of disputes might go down if the regulator comes into place, because many developers would not dispute with NHAI as they have to go back to the NHAI for other projects and hence, they stay away from problems.
There are many projects which are awarded on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis, which have more number of disputes than those awarded on public private partnership (PPP) basis.
The regulator will also ensure that the toll charges are fair, transparent and reasonable, apart from facilitating and overseeing the development of the road sector.
Road projects which are under control of the state government can also be regulated at the national level. The regulator can take over few of the functions which are now being executed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
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