Highways development, which remained largely comatose during UPA-I, has got an adrenalin injection with the induction of Kamal Nath as the minister in-charge. But his pitch to create 20 km of highways, despite his good intentions, looks hard to achieve, primarily because of capacity constraints in the road construction industry—an issue that has got much less attention than it deserves. Join discussion...

A plan for projects to be awarded in the year 2010-11 is to be launched soon. If there is one thing that makes India’s growth story patchy, it is its infrastructure. Within the infrastructure deficit, the lack of roads remains the greatest challenge. Although India currently has 3.3 million kilometres of roads — the second largest such network in the world — the shortage of highways has been a major hurdle for attracting foreign investment. Join discussion...

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry of India is looking for US$2.96bn in credit from the World Bank for the development of highways in the country, reported India's Economic Times in September. Join discussion...

The government on Wednesday said that meeting the deadline to award 12,000 km highway projects by March 2010 will be delayed by at least three more months. Road, transport and highways minister Kamal Nath said this singling out conflict of interest (crossholding in bid competitors) and other irritants in the concession agreement and bid documents as the reasons behind the slowdown. Join discussion...

In its latest attempt to fast-track clearance of the restructured highway projects, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) board in its meeting on Wednesday approved that all projects where the value change after restructuring was below 20% of the total project cost (TPC) would be cleared by the board. The ones with over 20% variation would be referred to the Cabinet for approval. Join discussion...

“I would like to suggest to the tourism ministry to identify places of tourist importance where roads need to be constructed. We (road ministry) would give Rs 50 crore to state governments from CRF to construct major district roads for better connectivity,” Nath said at the World Travel and Tourism Council on Wednesday. Join discussion...

Infrastructure developer GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd (GVKPIL) on Tuesday withdrew its petition challenging the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) disqualification of the company’s bid for a highway stretch. The authority said the company was free to bid with its choice of a joint venture (JV) partner. Join discussion...

To give more comfort to lending agencies for road projects, the government is considering a proposal to give ownership of highway projects to the National Highways Authority of India, Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said. "We are trying to devise a framework for NHAI which will help raise funds more easily for projects," Nath told NewsWire18 on sidelines of a private event on Sunday. The existing concession agreement does not provide for any recourse to lending agencies, in case a builder defaults on loans Join discussion...

Marxist economics has a basic principle, that “prices are formed in the commodity markets”. Since Marxists don’t regard services as being of any real value, they don’t have a theory about where prices are ‘formed’ for services. Nor, it would seem, does the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. It has been tying up itself into all kinds of knots over toll rates. The latest confection has been served up at the Allahabad bypass on the National Highways network. Join discussion...

With the road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath setting up an ambitious target to construct highways at a pace of 20 kms a day, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is stepping on gas. The authority has initiated bidding process for 49 projects across the country worth Rs 51,148 crore. Join discussion...