For highways ministry, hopes lies ahead

NEW DELHI: The change of guard in the road, transport and highways ministry was seen as an indicator of the government���s resolve to revive the road and highways sector. In the past 100 days, announcements have flown thick and fast, faster than actions and award of projects, but with Kamal Nath in charge there is a visible change in the attitude and enthusiasm among ministry and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials. Now, at least, there is hope more roads would be built, that too at some speed, in comparison to the past couple of years.

The expectation has been high from both the highway regulator and private contractors . Hitting the bull���s-eye after taking charge, the minister set his priorities to fasttrack projects that have been stalled due to procedural delays including certain provisions in the model concession agreement (MCA), by trying to bring in structural changes and speed up land acquisition. There has been significant progress on this front.

The minister even announced that anything which would work out to achieving construction of 20km of road per day was acceptable. Undoubtedly, this target is ���ambitious ��� in absolute terms, and NHAI chairman Brajeswar Singh was being realistic when he said 20km per day could be a possibility in the next 18 months. But so far, the ministry has had its major success only in pushing for changes to make projects attractive for bidders.