The Union government has invited bids worth Rs 20,000 crore, to widen 2,000 km of highways, opening up a big opportunity for companies such as L&T, GMR, Reliance Infrastructure and Gammon.This has helped the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) inch closer to its target.
In 2011-12, NHAI has awaÂrded contracts for 5,100 km by the end of January against a target of 7,300 km, which is 44 percent more than last year.This triggered aggressive bids by private companies as the number of projects on offer sloÂwed down after a promising start.Officials expect 60 companies to compete for the projects.
The Finance Ministry had queÂstioned the delays in approvals by the public-private partnership appraisal committee, which led to projects of 1,600 km getting stalled.The committee, headed by Economic Affairs Secretary, is an inter-ministerial committee that approves infrastructure project involving viability gap funding.
The Union Roads Ministry plans to invest Rs 70,000 crore on double laning of 20,000 km single lane roads through the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) model during the 12th Five year Plan period (2012-17).The Ministry is learnt to be actively considering developing an acceptable EPC document that would promote cost-effective and timely execution of projects.
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