The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has decided to keep only national highways under the ambit of the proposed road regulator.
With finance minister P Chidambaram having proposed a regulator for the roads sector, the ministry is all set to finalise the terms of reference for the proposed regulatory body by the end of this month, keeping its focus on the national highways.
According to a senior government official, the proposed regulator would check concessionaires on service quality, advise measures to tackle a downturn in the sector, allow renegotiation of the agreements on a case criticality basis.
?The regulator will not be a dispute settlement body for sure, we have envisaged that the regulator should be an advisory and directive authority along with powers to keep a check on the alleged nexus between the concessionaires and the national highways authority of India (NHAI),? the official added.
It will also have the rights to advise the NHAI and the ministry when grey areas arise, the official added.
Roads minister CP Joshi in a internal meeting said an independent regulator for roads could be the turning point to best address these issues as well as provide enhanced reliability to private sector entities in the overall framework and reduce the burden on implementation agencies so that they can focus on award of projects and contract management.
