Stating this on Monday, N K Singh, secretary to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and member of the infrastructure task force, said: "Enquiries will be floated to select a consultant for working out the airport regulatory authority's function on December 26, 1998 and the process of selection is expected to be completed within a month."

The exact mechanism for private participation and the funding mechanism for the expressway projects connecting the four metros would be also be decided before the next meeting of the task force. The bid documents for the financing of the project and the financial parameters are expected to finalised by December 28. The tender process forthe bidding for the highway and road development projects would then begin, according to Singh.

Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation chairman Deepak Parekh will give a detailed presentation on the mode and means of financing the project before the next scheduled meeting of the infrastructure task force.

Besides this, preliminary discussions on the integrated transport policy were also held in order to frame a full-fledged transport policy by early next year, as desired by the prime minister.

The expressway projects, which is to run from north to south and east to west are part of the national expressway corridors connecting the four parts of the country. The exact numbers and locations of the highways and road sectors to be constructed and completed in the next five year period has also been decided by the task force.

Today's meeting of the infrastructure task force was attended by Union civil aviation minister Anant Kumar, Union surface transport minister M Thambi Durai, Montek SinghAhluwalia, member Planning Commission. The infrastructure task force had earlier decided on the widening of the roads at 20 places which was supposed to start within this financial year.

A separate committee comprising finance secretary Vijay Kelkar, N K Singh and Deepak Parekh was earlier formed into look into the financial modalities of the projects. The committee was also assigned the task of considering innovative means of financing to ensure that there would be no paucity of funds.

Based on the terms of reference, a tentative list of 40 places were shortlisted from where the construction was to start as suggested by the ministry of surface transport. From this, about 20 places was later earmarked by the task force.

The proposed 7,000 km-long national highway linking Silchar to Saurashtra and Kashmir to Kanyakumari as well as four laning of the national highways is estimated to cost in excess of Rs 30,000 crore. The private sector would be involved in a big way in setting up surface transportprojects as central and state governments are unlikely to find resources to fund these projects.

Ministry to seek Cabinet nod for airport corporatisation

The civil aviation ministry will shortly seek Cabinet clearance for the corporatisation of the Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports as well as for setting up of the airport regulatory authority to coordinate their operations. A consultant in this regard would be selected before December 28, who is expected to help in the setting up a airport regulatory authority.

The airport regulatory authority would be based on the lines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which was set up to ensure a level-playing field, fixation of tariffs and resolving legal issues, according to N K Singh, secretary to the Prime Minister's Office. The task force has been assigned the function of setting up of five international airports as well as upgrading the existing international airports in the country.

An inter-ministerial committee comprising civilaviation secretary P V Jaikrishnan and chairman of Airports Authority of India D V Gupta, was formed to suggest locations of the five airports as well as to recommend measures for the upgradation of the airports.

The committee would also go into the benchmarks to be followed for selection of location size, technical standards and financing options for highway and airport projects. It will also look at upgradation of the existing airports.