Road ministry aims at a bigger NHAI board
On a move to speed up the decision-making process of road projects, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is planning to make few changes in the system.
The road ministry is looking to include the economic affairs secretary in the board of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). By doing so, according to some sources, the ministry is also trying to remove a layer of approvals required for the projects to get ‘go ahead’.
Ministry floats cabinet note
The ministry has even floated a cabinet note with a proposal to make the NHAI board bigger. It wants the authority to be given more power to enable it to decide on issues such as conversion of project models at times when bids fail.
Members of board
At present, the board includes Secretary of Planning Commission, Secretary of road transport and highways and Secretary of expenditure (ministry of finance) as part-time members, apart from the chairman and five members of NHAI who are full-time members.
EPC model to be followed
Most are aware that several road projects based on public-private-partnership model have failed to get bids in the last few years as cash-strapped developers are reluctant to take up the projects. Therefore, the Prime Minister has approved to bid these projects on engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) model.
According to official sources, in order to speed up the approval process to change the mode of bid, a cabinet note has been proposed as per which, the NHAI board has to be enlarged and also should be given the power to make decision in this regard.
In the EPC model, the government awards a project to a contractor through competitive bidding process and offers an estimated amount of money to develop the project.
Note awaits Cabinet nod
The current procedure to secure an approval for a change in the mode of bidding requires an additional nod of an inter-ministerial group headed by the secretary, road transport and highways. The sources said that the note has been sent to various ministries for comments and is likely to be tabled in the cabinet soon.
PPP mode fails
Twenty road projects with a total length of around 2,900 km, which are worth Rs. 27,000 crore, have failed to receive any bids between March 2012 and October 2013. Highway projects of a length of merely 123 km have been awarded under the PPP mode in the ongoing fiscal.
As per the revised target, the ministry of roads expects NHAI to seek bids for around 2,000 km of projects under the EPC model. In a recent review meeting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh allowed the road ministry to opt the EPC model as private firms have been turning away from PPP projects.
