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...

Delay in land acquisition has been identified as one of the factors which slow the pace of highways construction in India. As per the Model Concession Agreement of the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) projects, NHAI is required to handover 80% of the land on the date of financial closure of these projects. That precisely means that NHAI will have to acquire the land in a time bound manner so that commencement of work is not delayed. Based on the experience in earlier phases, it was felt that the existing arrangement of acquiring land may not be adequate to meet the challenges of land acquisition works in the States. Join discussion...

Government of Nepal has awarded the work for upgrading of Sanfebagar - Martadi Road (Km 00+000 to Km 30+721) under Road Improvement Project scheme funded by Exim Bank of India, Mumbai. Madhucon Projects Limited has already commissioned its first BOT project for Improvement, Operation and Maintenance of Rehabilitation and strengthening of existing 2-Lane road and widening to 4-Lane divided Highway of KM 63.000 to KM 120.000 of NH-11 (Bharatpur - Mahua section) in the state of Rajasthan on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) Join discussion...

Along this last week some of the clauses of the new Model Concession agreement (MCA) under study came to light. I consider them to be very positive for private firms as they are are being restudied in order to make projects more profiteable but also because private corporations need to feel safe when they bid for infrastructure projects, there is alot of money at stake. Here you can see them in detail: Join discussion...

Companies implementing highway development projects on annuity basis may not be allowed more than 18% profit on their investments as per a proposal under consideration of the ministry of shipping, road transport and highways. “The government is considering to cap return on equity earned by road developers for annuity projects to prevent cartels from making abnormal profits from government-funded projects,” an official in the government said requesting anonymity. Join discussion...

In a move which will save time and paperwork for road developers, the government is considering a proposal to allow a developer, who is once recognised as being qualified for the bidding process for a particular project, to bid for other projects as well without going through the qualification process again. As per the proposal, the eligibility will be valid for a one-year period. Join discussion...