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...

To cut red tape in the process of obtaining approvals for highway projects, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has proposed that the B K Chaturvedi Committee do away with the system of mandatory approval of the Private-Public Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) before tendering of a project. 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...

IRB Infrastructure Developers, the Mumbai-based highway builder, may raise up to Rs1,200 crore to fund its projects. Virendra D Mhaiskar, IRB's chaiman & managing director, said the company's board has passed an enabling resolution to raise Rs1,200 crore. "We have not decided how much we have to raise now or the instruments to be used," he said on a conference call on Tuesday. 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...

The National Highway Authority of India, or NHAI, will give developers the option of extending the concession period by up to five years if the traffic reaches the maximum level, provided the developer adds more lanes to the road. 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...

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure today approved the implementation of the project of four laning of 84 Km long Barasat-Krishnanagar section of NH-34 in the State of West Bengal under the NHDP Phase III on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT ) Basis. The total project cost is estimated at Rs.859 crore under the DBFOT pattern. The concession period is for 24 years including a construction period of 36 months. Join discussion...

The government is exploring the option of a separate model concession agreement (MCA) for awarding expressway contracts. It had recently announced setting up of expressways authority to take up greenfield ventures and act as regulator. 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...