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 Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) has granted approval to eight more PPP projects, estimated to cost a total of around Rs10,883.89 crore. The 28th PPPAC meeting, chaired by finance secretary, on 16 October, granted approval to eight more projects of the ministry of road transport and highways, spread across three states. The projects included the following: Join discussion...

In a complete break from the current style of bidding out highway projects (as small parcels of land), the surface transport ministry is planning to award mega projects comprising 400 km to 600 km of highways. “In the next four to six months, we will be bidding out the first of the mega projects that will entail an investment of Rs 5,000 crore or about $1 billion,” road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath said on Sunday. He was speaking on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit. 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 Department of Transportation has dissolved all its privately funded road projects in the state. The DOT says its part of a plan to revamp a program meant to lure private money to transportation projects. Join discussion...

Thailand's Ministry of Transport is considering a plan to develop a THB30 billion ($898 million) motorway project to open a new transportation channel between central Thailand and the Northeastern region. The 196-kilometer road project, from Bang Pa In to the Northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, will be implemented under a public-private partnership scheme, Transport Minister Sophon Zaram told reporters. 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...

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...

The Centre has decided to develop on its own national highways that are outside the ambit of national highway development programme (NHDP) and other centrally-sponsored road projects, instead of relying on the Public Works Departments (PWDs) of the states, in a bid to speed up the development of road projects. Join discussion...