Centre to award new road projects on PPP, hybrid model: Nitin Gadkari

MUMBAI: Even as state-run National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) received tepid response from the private sector for road projects, Union Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari today said the government wants to award more projects on PPP and hybrid model.

"No one (private players) was ready to participate in the PPP-based projects as they had lost faith (in the previous government). However, to encourage private participation, we have also introduced a hybrid model, where we will share the risk with them," Gadkari told reporters here.

He said there is a renewed interest among private players, which was visible in the recent bidding for three road projects worth Rs 4,000 crore.

"The situation has changed in the last two months when we saw a number of companies bidding for three road projects -- 97.7km Shivpuri-Guna (Madhya Pradesh), 20km long Hospet- Chitradurga (Karnataka) and Solapur-Vijapur (Maharashtra) -- which were awarded on premium. This shows their faith has been reinstated," he said.

Gadkari said the government will, in the next 15 days, finalise the bids for another three BOT road projects, including Agra-Etawah road project in Uttar Pradesh, Raipur- Bilaspur in Chhatisgarh and Mukarba Chowk to Panipat in Haryana.

In the hybrid model, he explained, the government will share 40 per cent of the cost, while the remaining will be contributed by the developer. The government will provide all the approvals and clearances including land acquisition, environment clearance, utility shifting and approvals from the railways.