Highways ministry lines up projects worth Rs 50,000 crore to be awarded in next 3 months

According to minister of roads and highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, the highways ministry will award road projects with a total length of around 4,500 km worth Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.15 billion).

In September, he asked his department to locate the road projects to boost the economic activity in the country. 

Mr. Gadkari said in a written response in the Parliament, "Award of road projects covering a length of 4,471 km with an approximate cost of Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.15 billion) has been targeted during the next three months."

The highways ministry was planning to award road construction projects worth over Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.15 billion) over the next three months to boost demand in the construction and automobile sector, Mr. Gadkari said.

The ministry has awarded 168 road projects covering a length of 3,215 km, since April 2019, he added.

In 2018-19, National Highway Projects of an aggregated length of 5,493 km were awarded. 

The reason for weak participation of private sector in road projects were the capacity constraints on the part of developers, lack of availability of debt products, Mr. Gadkari said.

"Major highway developers had capacity constraints including over-leveraged financials due to excessive exposure of infrastructure projects including highways," Mr. Gadkari said.

The overall share of private investment in total road construction during the last five years is about Rs 98,100 crore, Mr. Gadkari said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.