Pick projects wisely, panel tells NHAI; Cong pans govt over debt

NEW DELHI: An inter-ministerial panel has asked the NHAI and highway ministry to get their priorities right and focus on building highways where they are needed more instead of taking up projects randomly. It has also suggested that states should also take up the task of building more highways.

The missive comes in the light of limited availability of funds for the highways sector and with the NHAI having to depend on borrowings to run its show. The NHAI has already borrowed more than Rs 1.67 lakh crore since 2014-15 and the 2019-20 budget has provided for raising another Rs 75,000 crore to meet requirements to carry forward construction of new and out sanctioned projects.

Taking a potshot at the Modi government, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted saying the government has made NHAI a “debtor”. “Between 2015 and 2018, NHAI took Rs 1,67,399 crore loan. What happened to the Rs 13 lakh crore that was kept in the government treasury from petrol-diesel cess?,” Surjewala asked in a tweet.


Sources said NHAI got about Rs 35,000 crore from government and its own revenue (toll collection) in 2018-19, took care of nearly 35% of its expenditure. The other 65% came from borrowings.