Stalled road projects to start by Aug 15: EPC mode to be adopted instead of PPP mode
The NaMo government is planning to give the gift of infrastructure on the independence day of India this year. Stalled highways projects worth Rs 1, 80,000 crore will be rolled out in a month’s span after sorting out hurdles like delays in land acquisition and green nods.
Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari mentioned in New Delhi on Tuesday that concrete roads which last longer than bitumen and are cost-friendly will be built.Gadkari blamed the previous regime of the UPA government for their lack of vision and their process of awarding projects without acquiring even 10% of the required land.
Gadkari mentioned that these had caused hardships for the road sector, however the government is looking into the land acquisition act and these hurdles will be ironed out shortly. He also announced that steps were on to launch new projects worth 2 lakh crore soon.
Gadkari also mentioned that as many as 189 projects with a cost of Rs 1,80,000 crore are stuck due to problems in land acquisition, delays in forest and environment clearances, non-transfer of defence land and hurdles in rail over bridges.
However the hurdles will be removed by August 15 and work will start on these. Gadkari also mentioned that public private partnership (PPP) model was not feasible at present for awarding the road projects due to a host of issues “created by the previous government”, and his ministry has proposed that the schemes should be bid out on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode.
Source- The Financial Express
environmental clearances, India, land acquisition, NDA, New Delhi, Nitin gadkari, Stalled Road Projects, Union government
