After the National Highways, there is a plan under the consideration of Central Road Transport Ministry to create Super National Highways. Through these Super National Highways of about 14,000 kms length, there is also a plan to link major sea ports of the country with important cities.
In the building of these Highways, the role of Private Sector will be important. This will be done on the basis of BOT (Build, Operate, and Transfer) by Private Sector. The Government of India has received 22 feasibility reports for the building of Super National Highways estimated to cost about Rs. 1,50,000 crore. Out of these, 10 proposals have come from multinational companies.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) was constituted under the National Highway Authority of India Act 1988 and was made operational in February 1995. Initially it was entrusted with the task of implementing five externally aided NH improvement projects.
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Subsequently it has been mandated to implement the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) comprising 4 to 6 planning of 13,252 kms. of national highways having two components: (a) The Golden Quadrilateral connecting four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai & Kolkata (5952 km) and (b) North-South and East-West corridors (7300 km.), connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Silchar to Saurashtra respectively and Salem to Cochin.
Kamal Nath, the Former Commerce Minister, has been appointed Minister of Transport in the new Cabinet. He is likely to provide a new thrust to the building of highways and their up-gradation, a task hitherto neglected by his predecessors.
The Vajpayee govt, had accorded the highest priority to the NHDP; but unfortunately the same urgency has not been shown by the new govt. The Golden Quadrilateral would have provided a big impetus to the infrastructure, but most of the corridors remain in a dismal state and work remains suspended, TR Balu, the previous Minister was mired in controversy and corruption.
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India would soon launch the world’s biggest public private partnership programme (PPP) that would give the country about 15,000 kms of roads and highways over the next three years.
This would come at a cost of $70 billion (about Rs. 350, 000 Crore), Kamal Nath, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, told investors from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
“The issue of land acquisition is not a contentious one as far as road sector is concerned, it is only a managerial issue”, he said. “NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) does not put up a bid before 80 per cent of land for the road project has been acquired and the remaining 20 per cent is notified” for acquisition by the Governments in the various states under their Revenue Powers.
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To accelerate the road-building process, the government is also putting in place about 150 land acquisition units government bodies that would exclusively deal with necessary clearances. Land acquisition has turned out to be the single largest road block for development of the road sectors and has also led to lack of interest among investors in the recent past.
Urging foreign investors to come forward, Nath said the processes would be made “investor friendly” in the light of the experiences gained in the last five years.
In this connection, it has to be emphatically pointed out that unlike the Railways in India; the National Highway Authority of India has not been conferred upon statutory powers to acquire lands in various parts of the country summarily.