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Highways sector poised for growth, says NHAI chief
The highways sector is poised for rapid growth as new opportunities unfold for construction of highways and some mega pipeline projects, according to Raghav Chandra, Chairman of National Highways Authority of India.
Outlining the overall vision, the NHAI chief said the focus is on development with a changed approach from output-based thinking to outcome-based thinking where PPP mode projects will be not only for constrction component but also for service aspect in highways development.
He said: “The national highways management has moved from construction-based to service-based achievement approach aimed at enhancing competitiveness and user satisfaction.”
During his address at the national conference on Highways Construction Technology, Chandra mentioned about Green Highway projects and the importance of safety in the highways. He said NHAI is keen to have private players to patrol the national highways, which would help in traffic management and maintain road discipline.
The NHAI official said more than 30,000 km of road projects are in the pipeline. NHAI has around 250 projects across the country and has completed more than 400 projects in the past.
Chandra said it is expected to spend about $15-16 billion dollars during 2016-17.
Some 97 projects with a total length of 6,631 km, which entail an investment of Rs. 1 lakh crore, are being awarded during 2016-17.
Some of the projects to be awarded include Vadodara-Mumbai 6/8 lane Expressway (Phase I ), Surat- Mumbai with a spur to Mumbai-Pune expressway and JNPT in Phase II, Delhi-Jaipur expressway, 6-8 lane semi-elevated Delhi-Meerut expressway, Somnath-Porbander-Dwarka section of NH-8E, Bihar/Jharkhand border-Barwa, Hospet-Bellary NH-63, Tamil Nadu Karnataka Border Bengaluru section of NH-209, Solapur-Bijapur section of NH-13, Salasar-Nagpur section of NH-65, Vikravandi-Thanjavur section of NH-45C, and four-laning Nagpur-Wardha-Nanded-Solapur-Ratnagiri section of NH-36.
Some of the projects awaiting approval for award and execution include Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Amaravati Expressway of 278 km (Rs 2673 crore), Nagpur-Hyderabad expressway of 505 km (Rs 483 crore), Hyderabad-Bangalore Expressway, Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway, Ring Road Expressway at Amaravati, and Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway of 600 km (Rs 2,125 crore).
NV Shetty, Chairman of the conference and COO of GMR Highways Ltd, said, the highways sector contributes about 5-6 per cent of the country’s GDP growth. This is largely driven by the initiatives of the Government. Cameron Meredith Jersey
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