Express Way: Road to progress is on right track
The public-private partnership (PPP) model, which the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been experimenting over the years, is finally entering into various other infrastructure domains.
By Shantanu Nandan Sharma, TNN |
If the sound financial engineering of the road projects in India is any indication, the sector has come of age. The public-private partnership (PPP) model, which the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been experimenting over the years, is finally entering into various other infrastructure domains.
Although sectors such as power and airports may still remain more bullish in 2008, the action in road sector may not cease to exist. In fact, India’s road network of 3.3 million km is the second highest in the world, and a very little has been done in modernising those roads.
Explains Rohit Modi, CEO, developmental projects, L&T: “If everything is on track, there will be at least 30 projects in NHAI in 2008, in which private sector investments will be no less than Rs 30,000 crore. What’s more, business opportunities will emerge from state governments as well,” he says.
Already, the Rs 30,000-crore Ganga Expressway project, connecting Greater Noida to Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, has attracted bids from 18 companies, including Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Energy, GMR Group, JP Associates as well as real estate majors such as DLF and Unitech.
In Gujarat, where projects for 500-km-long state highways are coming up, bidders have even offered to go for a revenue-sharing model with the state government, unlike on earlier occasions where developers asked for grants from most state governments.
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Once the construction phase is over, the growth will also come from road maintenance and re-engineering. Says H K Sehgal, COO, Telcon Ecoroad Resurfaces: “More modern technologies will hit the road as we proceed on construction and rehabilitation of roads. Recycling for bituminous roads, for example, is already available.”In railways, the PPP cell has become quite active, and many projects will now be undertaken in partnership with private players. Mega business opportunities will also emerge from eastern and western dedicated freight corridors, for which the government has given an in-principle approval of Rs 28,000 crore.
Says infrastructure specialist Prof G Raghuram from IIM-Ahmedad, “I feel, the commercial exploitation of at least 50 big railway stations can unlock a huge value and initiate big business. The process has already begun. Also, a few private companies are now running container trains. But a day will come when ‘steel trains’ or ‘foodgrain trains’ will be run by private players,” he says.
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