The Public-Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) has recommended public-private partnership (PPP) projects worth Rs 7,595.19 crore, while the Empowered Committee (EC) approved viability gap funding (VGF) of Rs 1,280.65 crore for PPP projects, in its 62nd and 19th meeting, respectively.

India is home to several bad roads be it the metropolitans, the cities or the villages. Bad road conditions are nothing new to India and the problem is being addressed since the last 30 years. However, of lately, many road projects have been sanctioned by the government and are up for bidding.

Hindsight: While the Indian Railways has shown rise in earnings, project execution has languished. Even the railways´ marquee projects, such as DFCs and modernisation of railway stations are running well behind their original timelines.

The Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for six-laning of the Vadodra-Surat section of NH-8 including construction of a new four-lane extra dosed bridge across the Narmada River and two eight-lane flyovers in Gujarat under the NHDP Phase V. The cost is estimated to be Rs 503.16 crore including Rs 17 crore as the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities.

The current levels of stress have been harsh on the road sector as a whole, indicating that there could be further deterioration in credit quality. While describing the current concerns of the toll roads sector, R Venkataraman believes the various steps taken by NHAI may not greatly help the ailing sector.

Following is the list of the projects which was cleared by Project Monitoring Group

For widening of Jalandhar-Amritsar section of National Highway in Punjab, the Union government on November 13 approved Rs 523.85 crore. The highway project will be taken up under the flagship road building programme, National Highways Development Project (NHDP) of the Union government.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved four-laning of the Aurangabad-Yedeshi section of National Highway-211 in Maharashtra. The road work will be taken up under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase IV on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT-Annuity) in Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) pattern.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved four-laning of the Aurangabad-Yedeshi section of National Highway-211 in Maharashtra. The road work will be taken up under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase IV on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT-Annuity) in Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) pattern.