Road ahead is corridor policy

Despite constraints faced in the timely completion of the NHDP, the Economic Survey is optimistic that the Golden Quadrilateral would be “substantially� completed by December 2005 while the North-South and East-West corridors would be completed by December 2007.

Calling for a shift in focus to corridor management and road safety for completed stretches, the Survey has also listed NHDP Phase III and IV and the Accelerated North-East road development project as the “next steps�.

The NHAI has already readied a corridor management policy, including various safety measures. Annual expenditure on safety is about Rs 1-1.5 lakh per km.

The Survey stresses the need for a framework for investment which “avoids unnecessary strain on government finances.�

While, NHAI’s main source of finance is the fuel cess, there has been a rapid growth in tolls, from Rs 85 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 371 crore in 2003-04 and is likely to rise to Rs 434 crore in 2004-05, it says in tacit approval of the toll method.

If highway construction is to achieve a capital expenditure of 0.5 % of GDP, the annual capital expenditure of NHAI by 2005-06 would need to cross Rs 18,000 crore, it adds for good measure.