Highways can be built on Engineering Procurement and Construction mode

NEW DELHI: Highway projects, which have become unviable under the public-private partnership mechanism for the developers, can now be built under the new Engineering Procurement and Construction ( EPC) mode.

"The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to adopt the EPC mode for National Highways which are not viable on PPP (Public-Private Partnership) basis," an official statement said.

The 12th Plan envisages construction of 20,000 kilometres of 2-lane National Highways based on EPC mode.

"The government has adopted the EPC mode of construction to ensure implementation of projects to specified standards with a fair degree of certainty in terms of cost and time, and with a view to enable a transparent, fair and competitive roll out of National Highway projects," the statement said.

The EPC mode assigns the responsibility for investigation, design and construction to contractors for a lump sum price awarded through competitive bidding, wherein provision for index-based price variation is made, it said.

As per this initiative, training programmes for the officials of the state PWDs on the EPC mode of construction will be organised alongwith the review meetings, it added.

The Road Ministry has also decided to conduct critical review meetings of National Highway projects in the respective states. The new initiative has been adopted to resolve the hindrances in the construction of National Highways on a fast-track basis and to ensure seamless construction of National Highways in the country.