NHAI to spend Rs 11,885 crore under various projects this fiscal

NEW DELHI: Highways regulator NHAI has set a an expenditure target of Rs 11,885 crore for 2013-14 on its many projects, including flagship road building scheme NHDP.

The NHAI is tasked to implement various road projects of about 50,000 kms, of which widening of about 21,000 km has already been completed.

"The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has earmarked Rs 11,885 crore on the projects for this fiscal," a Road Transport and Highways Ministry official told PTI.

The total cost of about 50,000 km projects is about Rs 2 lakh crore and about half of which has already been spent, the official said.

The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) aims to build 34,108 km in four phases and it has so far completed widening of 7,501 km while work is under way for 11,459 km more.

The balance of 15,148 kms are still to be awarded, the official said.

NHDP is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and widen major highways in India to international standards.

Projects worth Rs 3 lakh crore are likely to be bid out under its seven phases.

Concerned over the slow progress of projects under NHDP, a Parliamentary panel had recently asked the ministry to take steps for expediting them in order to attract private investment.

The official said as far as other ambitious projects like North-South & East-West Corridors are concerned, only 372 km has been left for award of work as 611 km is under implementation, while the major chunk 6,159 has already been completed.

The North-South (NS) Corridor connects Srinagar with Kanyakumari, while the East-West (EW) corridor connects Porbandar with Silchar. The total length of the NS-EW network is 7,142 km.

The project was originally scheduled to be completed in 2009 but as per officials the same was delayed due to problems in land acquisition and law and order in some parts.

The Ministry has already taken the issue with state governments asking their support for expediting the project.