The Kerala government is taking steps to boost transport of cargo through inland waterways and coastal shipping route in order to ease pressure on road infrastructure and also to reduce carbon footprint. In this regard, the state government announced a subsidy of Rs 1 for every 1 tonne of cargo moved through the coastal shipping

The Tamil Nadu State Highways Department is implementing road infrastructure improvement projects at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore. In 2012-13, the state had allocated Rs 2,262 crore for 4,943 km roads works and 150 infrastructure works. In the next 10 years, 2,000 km roads would be made into six-lane or eight-lane, 5,000 km roads would be made four-lane and all roads in the state would be at least two-lane at a cost of Rs 1.33 lakh crore.

In Tamil Nadu, the Jayalalithaa-led government on January 23 announced the introduction of a new performance-based maintenance contract system for maintaining the roads and highways in the state. The news system is considered as a major fillip to road infrastructure in the state.

The Tamil Nadu State Highways Department is implementing road infrastructure improvement projects at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, The State Minister for Highways and Minor Ports Department Edappady K Palaniswami, said in Coimbatore on January 7.

For the proposed Agra-Lucknow expressway Uttar Pradesh government on January 3 selected a consortium of feedback infrastructure services and Redecon India as the project development consultant. The project is estimated to cost Rs 10,500 crore. The selection was finalised in a meeting chaired by the State Infrastructure & Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anil K Gupta.

Banks in India are going to be given more functional and supervisory powers by the government with regard to road projects.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) on November 30 expressed its resentment over the poor city road infrastructure causing trouble to fliers from the Kolkata airport. The AAI's criticism has come barely two months before the airport is slated to throw open to the public its brand new terminal.

Highway award and implementation has faced a major slowdown this fiscal, but most of the factors are the usual suspects. Then why is this year different? Rohit Chaturvedi and Tejaswi Subramanian explain the potential pitfalls and silver lining in the sluggishness. After a year of aggressive bidding and flourishing business, the road sector has seen a marked slowdown this year in the number of allotments made or expected to be made by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Highways will continue to be sluggish until the unattractive Phase IV projects are completed. With the road sector is poised to undergo a further change in the coming years, the industry as a whole, needs to continue tapping the advantages of road transportation more efficiently and optimally than ever before, writes Bhavik Damodar. The road transportation sector continues to struggle to cater to the country’s size and widely spread consumption hubs.