Budget 2016: Road ministry seeks Rs 80,000 crore from Centre to fund highway expansion plan

NEW DELHI: The road transport and highways ministry has sought over Rs 80,000 crore from the finance ministry to fuel its highway expansion plan in the fiscal year beginning April 1.

The amount is almost double of what the ministry had received in the budget for 2015-16. A senior official said the ministry plans to use most of the funds sought for the government’s ambitious Bharat Mala project, which envisages construction of 25,000 km of roads along India’s borders, coastal areas, ports, religious and tourist places as well as over 100 district headquarters.

The ministry aims to complete the project by 2022.

"We will be undertaking the construction of some of the Bharat Mala projects through government-funded engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model. The focus will still be on constructing highways through public funding as the private sector will still take some time to come forward," the official said, requesting anonymity.

Road, transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari will be setting up an aggressive target of awarding around 15,000 km of roads next year, of which 30 per cent will be done through private participation and the rest through the EPC model. The ministry is also looking to raise funds through tax-free bonds Gadkari is expected to meet finance minister Arun Jaitley by the end of this week to put forward his proposal.

Road construction has been among the top priorities of the Narendra Modi-led government. It allocated Rs 42,000 crore for road and highway construction in the 2015-16 Budget.

Gadkari has said that construction of highways needs to be accelerated to 30 km per day from the current pace of around 13 km.

The ministry, which has proposed Bharat Mala as an umbrella scheme, estimates an investment of Rs 80,000 crore on the 7,000 km stretch of border and coastal roads, Rs 85,000 crore on religious and tourists places connectivity, and Rs 30,000 crore on Setubharatam, which includes construction of 1,500 bridges and over-bridges.




The government also plans to build 9,000 km of roads connecting over 123 district headquarters at an investment of Rs 60,000 crore, another 7,000 km in backward areas at Rs 80,000 crore and the 900-km Char Dham stretch, connecting Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, at Rs 11,700 crore. The grant being sought will include the special funds for the north east region, fuel cess and central road fund.

The ministry has also proposed to construct 15 expressways, out of which eight have already been approved by the Cabinet. These expressway projects would be taken on the newly-conceived hybrid annuity model.