Operation and maintenance of more than 100 toll booths across the country can be handed over to foreign companies, Kamal Nath said on Tuesday in his last announcement as road transport and highway minister. On Wednesday, he was shifted from the road ministry to urban development ministry.
Erstwhile rural development minister C P Joshi was put in Nath?s place. Jitin Prasada, who was minister of state (MoS) for petroleum till now, was given the position of MoS for roads.
The movement of Kamal Nath from road transport ministry ends a period where the sector got engaged in several controversies. While the clash between the road transport ministry and the Planning Commission over changes in model concession agreement for road came out in the open, Nath also came in for sharp criticism over his over ambitiruous target to construct 20 km of road per day or more than 7,000 km every year. The present pace of construction is a little more than 12-km a day.
Planning Commission and road ministry were seen on opposite ends of the table on most occasions, with the former calling the road construction target unreasonable and Nath terming the plan panel ?an armchair adviser?.
During his 17-month tenure as road minister, Nath announced a plethora of schemes and tried to get foreign investments by flying out of the country for more than a dozen times. The term was also marked by a scam in project award, being investigated by CBI. He also proposed amendments in Motor Vehicle Act and Carriage by Road Act, however the plans are yet to come through.
However, Nath ensured seamless movement of transporters across states through implementation of new national permit scheme, in addition to eliminating the fly-by-night road builders by tightening bidding norms.
The biggest challenge for the new road minister CP Joshi will be to bring back the sector on the road to recovery and stand true over the ambitituous claims made by his predecessor. ?Nath had set the ball rolling with a roadmap on road construction and I feel the new minister is capable of taking the sector to new heights,? Soma Enterprises senior vice-president DV Raju said.
Joshi also has to ensure disbursement of around $3 billion loan from the World Bank to expand the two-lane roads in the country. The unfinished task of getting an additional $2 billion loan from the bank for payment of annuity and viability gap funding would be a key challenge for the minister as the World Bank is seeking changes in the annuity model, but finance ministry is opposed to such changes.