'Within six months I expect petrol, diesel, and electric vehicles (EVs) to reach cost parity,' says Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.
On the back of an aggressive asset monetisation push, the government will press the throttle on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model - under which private developers fund highway construction - for future highway development, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said.
'The vision now is not just to look at national highways as a number of kilometres, but quality as well.'
In order to achieve $5 trillion GDP by FY'25, India needs to spend about $1.4 trillion over this period on infrastructure, according to the Economic Survey. During financial years 2008-17, India pumped in about $1.1 trillion on infrastructure. However, the challenge is to step up infrastructure investment substantially, the Economic Survey 2021-22 said.
Inter-ministerial group to meet on Thursday to finalise model concession pact.
Though the controversy between the Planning Commission and the road transport ministry is old, the trigger for Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath calling the Commission an 'armchair advisor' seems to be a document of the Planning Commission.
With the Union government clearing the way for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the railways, the Railway Board is devising a plan for operations, maintenance and construction projects.
The Centre will release Rs 95,082 crore as tax devolution to the states this month after including one advance instalment to help them push their capital expenditure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. After a meeting with all chief ministers and state finance ministers, Sitharaman said states had said that it would be helpful for them if the tax devolution is front loaded.
These could include strengthening the public-private partnership (PPP) dispute resolution mechanism, uniform PPP institutional framework, easier terms for infrastructure companies accessing bond markets, and tax sops, Business Standard has learnt. Investment in infrastructure projects with high multiplier effect has been the Centre's main plank to revive the economy, create employment and boost consumption.
The National Highways Authority of India has decided to slow down the process of awarding contracts for new highway projects. This would further delay the process of modernisation and expansion of the national highways by a few months.
The 'golden share', which will be owned by the government, will ensure that it has a say in all major decisions taken by the private concessionaire. It will also obviate the need for the government to invest in the equity of the company. The proposal has been mooted by the Planning Commission in the new model concession agreement that it has developed for the infrastructure sector. The agreement has been circulated among various stakeholders for consultation.
Contentious issues like land acquisition and sharing of toll seem to have put the approval of the new Model Concession Agreement for highway projects on hold.
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Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar said the discussions at the day-long meet involved an overview of five models of participative policy, framework of engineering, procurement and construction contracts and sectoral guidelines for foreign and domestic investment.
MCA is a legal contract, which prescribes the terms and conditions for executing a road project.
The move is part of a larger initiative by the government to speed up work in the highway sector.
The Rs 63,000-cr Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor and Rs 14,000-cr CSTM-Panvel suburban corridor are two of the largest projects.
The airports were refurbished at the cost of Rs 2,325 cr and Rs 2,015 cr respectively but there have been various complaints.
Experts believe scrapping some projects is likely to bring some stability in road sector.
Earlier, an inter-ministerial group used to take these decisions.
Big challenge to garner sizeable additional resources.
The idea of modernising railway stations under a PPP arrangement was aired several years ago by the then railway minister, Lalu Prasad, who visualised attracting Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) investment in 22 stations.
Stepped up public expenditure must be accompanied by focused policies, advises Vinayak Chatterjee.
Infra sector is neglected by the Modi govt.
The shares could continue to see outperformance if the Budget assumptions are proved correct
This uncaring attitude is primarily based on the fact that road concessionaires still do not see themselves as "service deliverers", says Vinayak Chatterjee.
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