The ministry of roads, transport and highways has abandoned the plan for an expressway authority and instead decided to set up a corporate entity within the framework of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to oversee building of expressways. The proposal to have an expressway authority was first mooted in the 11th Plan document.
The road ministry, according to sources, has now written to the NHAI chairman RP Singh saying that the implementation and creation of the corporate entity should be expedited. ?A standalone vertical in the form of a corporate entity should be created within NHAI. The corporate entity should be headed by member – public private partnership,? the letter said.
Member-PPP Sudhir Kumar is likely to be named as the CMD of this entity.
Even though the financing model of the expressways is yet to be chalked out by NHAI, the ministry of roads and the planning commission, the ministry of roads has said that NHAI will ensure the availability of resources followed by expeditious land acquisition.
Sources say that the government might consider issuing infrastructure bonds to collect funds for the expressways, the way NHAI did in FY2011-12.
Besides, it is understood that the corporate entity will first deal with the construction of the Delhi-Jaipur expressway. It was during the 11th Plan period and again during the 12th Plan period that the development on the 450-km expressway between Vadodara and Mumbai and the Delhi-Jaipur expressway was considered under the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) Phase VI.
The letter adds that ?since Delhi-Jaipur greenfield Expressway is a special project it will be implemented through the PPP model.?
? The state governments of Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi have already been roped in to provide land and discussions are under way to finalise alignment and check land acquisition,? the source said.
The minister of roads, transport and highways, CP Joshi, had earlier said that the need for expressways to both the state capitals was felt in view of the increasing traffic.
As regards the Delhi-Jaipur expressway, which was mooted long back and the project for which is yet to be awarded, the government wants to complete its work within the fiscal itself so that the project is ready in 2-3 years, the source said.
The NHAI will also be giving additional manpower to the entity along with other decision-making powers to the head of the proposed company so that all the decisions for the construction of the expressway are routed via this company.
?NHAI will be taking all the necessary steps to ensure that the organisation of the new entity is lean and thin with minimal manpower, to the extent possible. Officers and other staff of NHAI could also be deployed on a work-arrangement basis. This would effectively mean that officers and other human resources assisting the CMD/MD of the new entity will continue to have substantive postings within NHAI and will draw resources from NHAI to the extent possible,? the letter said.
Given the delay in actual construction on the 18,000 km of expressways, the Planning Commission had said that construction is likely to begin around the 12th Plan period. Planning, detailed project reports, identification of stretches to be covered and preliminary works are also under progress.
In the meantime, the NHAI is looking at feasibility of expressways between high traffic density sections such as Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Meerut, Chennai-Bangalore and Kolkata-Dhanbad, besides the Vadodara-Mumbai section.
