Talking to newsmen, he also said that Central Road Fund (CRF) would be a non-lapsable fund and the proceeds would be utilised exclusively for the development of road sector. Part of the proceeds from cess on HSD and petrol, imposed by the government earlier, would form the corpus of the CRF.

He further said that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) will be sending a note to the Cabinet to streamline procedures for spending money out of the CRF.

The government has imposed an additional duty of Re 1 per litre on petrol in the last budget and later paise 50 on HSD for development of highway projects. Half of the proceeds from levy on HSD would go to CRF along with the proceeds from additional excise duty on petrol.

As much as 30 per cent of the fund would be made available to the states fordevelopment and maintenance of state roads. The balance amount would be utilised for national highways and expressways and by the railways ministry for the construction of railway over-bridges and railway safety works on unmanned railway crossing. After taking into account the share of states etc, a sum of about Rs 2,500 crore would be available for the national highways which would be primarily utilised by national highways development projects (NHDP).

The government plans to build 13,245-km four-lane national highway criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country. This will connect Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai as well as extreme southern, northeastern, western and northern provinces.

The estimated cost of this project is Rs 47,862 crore and it is to be primarily funded through a cess being collected on diesel and petrol.

The NHAI has already chalked out a detailed programme for implementation of the project in phases. The proposed steps include implementation of work on stretches already identified,feasibility studies, land acquisition and shifting of utilities, detailed engineering, award of work etc. This will be closely monitored by the Task Force.

The Task Force also proposed to strengthen the board of NHAI. The Task Force has also set up a sub-group under the IDFC chairman which would report on the most appropriate methods of using available fund including dedicated levies to implement NHDP. The group would also examine various options for attracting private investment.

Meanwhile, the Task Force has also finalised model concession agreement for the projects costing more than Rs 100 crore. The document would be used for inviting proposals from private sector on BOT basis.