Speedy Completion of National Highway Projects,

Government Firm on Speedy Completion of NH Projects

The Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Rajya Sabha today that the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have taken a number of steps for speedy completion of National Highways projects including streamlining of the process of land acquisition and other statutory clearances, harmonious substitution of Concessionaire, re-schedulement of Premium quoted by concessionaires, getting Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to treat road sector loans as secured, introduction of revamped dispute resolution mechanism and close coordination with other ministries etc. Considering the current market conditions, particularly with reference to the highway sector, focus of the Government is on implementation of highways through public funded EPC mode.

Once, the highways sector gathers momentum through execution of the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) projects and current issues plaguing Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) mode are well-addressed, the focus on BOT (Toll) mode would be restored in order to effectively take highways sector forward.

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Government Plans to Mandate Test Norms for Passenger Cars

The Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Rajya Sabha today that the Government is planning to mandate the offset frontal crash test and side impact crash test norms for passenger cars. For this requisite test, facilities are being built under National Automotive Testing and Research and Development Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) initiative. Once these facilities are ready, the regulations will be implemented. To meet these regulations, majority of car manufacturers will require to use several safety devices, including air bags.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM) are the members of the Standing Committee on the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, which decides the implementation issues. Automobile manufacturers provide their viewpoints from time to time in this forum along with other stakeholders.

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Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram NH to be Widened to Four-Lane

The Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Rajya Sabha today that the stretch of NH-47 from Kanyakumari to Thiruvananthapuram via Nagercoil – Kavalkinaru section of NH-47B is to be widened to four lanes. The Detailed Project Report has been prepared for implementing the project under two packages, viz. (i) 4-laning of Thiruvananthapuram – Kerala / Tamil Nadu border section of NH-47 for a length of 43.00 Km in the State of Kerala and (ii) 4-laning of Kerala / Tamil Nadu border – Kanniyakumari section of NH-47 and Nagercoil – Kavalkinaru section of NH-47B for a total length of 70.36 Km in the State of Tamil Nadu. The land acquisition for four laning has been taken up. The construction of four lane road would be taken up after acquisition of required land.

The section from Tirunelvli to Thiruvananthapuram via Nagercoil is connected with National Highway (NH) -7, NH-47 and NH-47B. Out of this, the stretch of NH-7 from Tirunelveli to Kanyakumari has already been converted into four lane carriageway.

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Upgradation of Shivpuri-Dewas Section of National Highway

The Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan informed the Rajya Sabha today that the upgradation of Shivpuri-Dewas section of the National Highways (NH-3) to four-lane is targeted to be awarded by March, 2015. It is now proposed on Design-Build-France-Operate-Transfer basis and the bidding of project (in three packages) is under process.

The traffic density on Gwalior-Shivpuri-Dewas section of National Highway (NH) 3 is varying from 15000 Passenger Car Units (PCU) to 21000 PCU and upgradation work to four lane standard is being taken up in this stretch. Four-laning of Gwalior-Shivpuri section on Build-Operate-Transfer (Toll) basis has already commenced with appointed date of 16.05.2013 and construction period of 2.5 years. Shivpuri-Dewas section was earlier awarded on 12.01.2012. However, the project was terminated by National Highways Authority of India on 07.05.2014 due to non-achievement of financial closure by the concessionaire.

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Shri Nitin Gadkari Invites Financial Institutions to Invest in Infrastructure Projects

The Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways & Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari today invited financial institutions, both domestic as well global to invest in India’s infrastructure projects including highways and inland waterways. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the 4th international summit on “Infrastructure Finance-Building for Growth” organized by ASSOCHM here. Shri Gadkari outlined the Modi Government’s focus on promoting world class infrastructure as a part of India’s growth strategy and called upon all the stakeholders to join in this endeavour for making the country a global power. He promised the private investors that the Government would make their investments in infrastructure projects as a force multiplier by strengthening policy frameworks wherever necessary.

The Minister asserted that the NDA government, under the leadership of Premier Modi, is committed to making India a social welfare state striking a perfect balance between progress and development. Environment preservation and socio-economic emancipation of all underprivileged sections of the society by creating jobs are high on the agenda of the Government, he added.

Shri Gadkari listed several initiatives taken by his ministries in the highways and shipping sectors including e-tolling, goods transport in river Ganga from Varanasi to Haldia and resumption of several stalled national highway projects in different parts of the country. Other initiatives included a new Road Transport & Safety Bill 2014, a national permit policy for goods transport across the country, a computerized driving license system, highway safety projects, cashless treatment of road accident victims, preference to concrete roads and sea-plane service in Mumbai.