With an aim to encourage foreign investors to invest in the highways construction sector in the country, surface transport minister Kamal Nath on Thursday kickstarted a campaign in Singapore to apprise them about the potential of the sector in the country.
?With 7% traffic growth and 12% vehicle growth per annum and the vast demand from the booming rural sector, India?s road sector presents great potential for growth and private sector participation,? said Nath at the India Infrastructure Summit.
Spelling out his priorities for building world-class infrastructures in India, Nath asked the investors to come out with suggestions so as to impove the present processes and make it more attractive for investors.
Nath assured the investors that Indian economy?s fundamentals are strong and soon the country would be back to the 9% growth trajectory. He also informed the investors about the steps being taken by the ministry of road transport and highways to reform the processes and carrying out structural changes at NHAI and plans for capacity building of both the contactors and NHAI.
??With the public-private partnership (PPP) model as one of the most suitable for the road sector , of the 12,000 km road aimed for the next year, 7,000 will be on BOT (Toll basis) and 5,000 km will be on annuity and EPC basis,? Nath said. The road show at Singapore, jointly organised by the ICIC Bank and JM Financial Institutional Securities Pvt Ltd, completes the Asia phase of the road shows. Road shows in Europe and the US are also planned in the coming months. The sector?s investment requiremts are pegged at $12 billion by 2012.
Nath also held a series of meetings with the Prime Minister and other senior ministers of Singaproe to get their government?s co-peration.