National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) awarded 38 projects for expansion of 3,351 km of highways during 2009-10, highest in last four financial years. Last time when NHAI?the nodal agency for expansion of national highways?breached the 3,000-km level was in 2005-06.

However, this is not expected to be appreciated much by road transport & highways Minister Kamal Nath, who was hoping for a better performance considering that he was recently in the line of fire from Planning Commission for setting ?unrealistic? targets.

After assuming office in the UPA-II regime, Nath had set a target of awarding 12,652-km highways expansion projects during 2009-10 in order to attain Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?s vision of construction of 20 km roads of national highways a day.

Later, in a letter to road transport & highways ministry, Planning Commission suggested fixing ?reasonable targets?. The panel said NHAI would not manage to award more than 3,794 km during the year.

Following the letter, Nath revised the target to 7,000 km and extended the time period for achieving it from March to June 2010. With only 3,351-km awarded till March, the authority will have to bid out more than 3,500-km highway expansion projects in the three months to June 30, which is unlikely to happen, analysts said.

NHAI lauded its performance, saying it has achieved more than the ?original target? of 2,500 km. ?Our original target was somewhere around 2,500 km, which was changed to more than 12,000 km by the UPA-II government. And then, the process to achieve the new target actually started in August, close to the mid-year review. Considering these two points, we have done better,? NHAI chairman Brijeshwar Singh told FE .

Analysts held procedural delays responsible for NHAI?s performance. ?The performance is not bad. It is just that the authority could not achieve what it should have. But for this, no reason could be ascribed to NHAI. It has more to do with the changes in procedures and documents, creation of committees etc. These decisions were taken by inter-ministerial groups, where many constituents often don?t agree on a point,? PricewaterhouseCoopers executive director Amrit Pandurangi said.

During the year, the government changed the model concession agreement, incorporating suggestion of K Chaturvedi Committee. It is also in the process of amending the toll policy.

NHAI chairman exuded confidence on achieving the target till June, saying that the positive environment for investment has to be sustained. ?I am confident of achieving the target provided the bids keep coming,? he said. NHAI could award only two projects in March for expansion of 185-km highways. The two projects are 45 km Indore-Dewas in Madhya Pradesh and 140 km stretch from Krishnagiri to Walajapet in Tamil Nadu. The last time NHAI crossed the 3,000-km level in 2005-06 when it awarded 116 projects for expansion of 4,740-km national highways.

In the current year, the authority has to award 7,305-km for expansion, according to the outcome Budget 2010-11 of the ministry. This is a downwardly revised target from the original target of 11,854 km.

?I am hopeful on the award of projects this year, but awarding is not a matter of concern. The bigger issue is execution of these projects for which NHAI, Centre, states and private developers have to work together,? Pandurangi said.