Modi government sets ball rolling, to reboot 34 stuck road plans worth Rs. 35,000 crore.

The government has allowed the National Highways Authority of India to compensate road developers for delays not attributable to them, potentially unlocking investment of nearly Rs. 35,000 crore in 34 stalled projects.

In a separate decision, the government empowered road transport and highways ministry to approve projects with civil construction cost of up to Rs. 1,000 crore, approving a proposal to take out land costs from to speed up decision-making. Both the decisions were taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs recently.

'The CCEA has given its approval for authorising National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to allow extension of concession period for all current projects in BOT (toll) mode that are languishing during the construction period due to causes not attributable to the concessionaire,' the government said in a statement.

The proposal also authorises NHAI to pay compensatory annuities to the developer for the actual period of delay upon successful completion of the project. In all, stuck road projects of about 3,500 km are expected to be revived.

'The Cabinet has taken a very bold decision to allow the ministry of road transport and highways to go into the merits of each case and wherever the delays are not attributable to the developer, to extend the tolling period if that should be required and take such measures, which will once again revive these toll projects and get them to operation,' coal and power minister Piyush Goyal told the media.


ET