Govt to clear lenders’ road project blocks

Sources said NHAI would now bring an inflation-indexed mechanism in consultation with the Planning Commission to appraise total project costs (TPC), a move that could reduce the divergence between its estimate and that of lenders.

Explaining the rationale behind the move to give lenders added safety over project failures, CII infrastructure committee head Vinayak Chatterjee said: “With many developers having limited creditworthiness and little investor interest, there is a need to ease liquidity. The proposed changes will allow lenders to buy out stalled old projects, enabling them to try and prevent the assets from turning into an NPAs.”

In the roads and highways sector, 18 projects are stuck due to delays in financial closure. While 39 projects await environment and forest clearance, six are on hold because of delay in wildlife clearances.