Gadkari SoP on way: Nagaland has a share in NHIDCL’s big road drive

PTI Delhi, June 23 NHIDCL, a government company mandated to fast-track road projects in tough terrain, including border areas, is set to award projects worth Rs 1.3 lakh crore over the next five years. The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) will also be laying out 1,500 km of highways in various states under Modi government’s ambitious Bharat Mala project. “NHIDCL has set a target to award projects worth Rs 1,30,000 crore, including 10,000 km of highways and 2,000 bridges,” NHIDCL Director (finance) Sanjay Jaju said. Jaju said the company at present is handling 74 projects of about Rs 35,000 crore. “In addition, we will be handling another 1,500 km for the Bharat Mala project in various states.” The Bharat Mala project envisages construction of 5,000 km of road network all along the borders and coastal areas at a cost of Rs 55,000 crore. NHIDCL, a fully-owned company of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, awarded 18 projects last fiscal for building 600 km of roads at an expenditure of about Rs 8,500 crore in Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Last month, foundation stones were laid by the company for 10 projects for building 281 kms of highways entailing an expenditure of Rs 5,320 crore. The company plans to award road packages worth Rs 14,599 crore in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Nagaland in the current fiscal while it has marked 10 projects worth Rs 6,936 crore for 2016-17 mostly for these states. Of the current lot worth about Rs 35,000 crore being handled by it, mostly are in the North-East while the remaining are in Andaman & Nicobar, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Earlier, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said NHIDCL, on the lines of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), will expedite projects mainly in the North-East and areas sharing international borders to boost economic activities, besides job creation. NHIDCL was incorporated in July 2014 with the aim to fast-track highway projects that have been pending with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for several years. In May this year, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had said in Shillong, in Meghalaya, that the government would be awarding road projects worth Rs 15,000 crore in the region by December. “Of the total Rs 15,000 crore road projects envisaged for the North-East, Rs 6,000 crore worth highways will be developed in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 2,000 crore projects each in Nagaland and Meghalaya and the remaining ones in other parts of the region,” Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said here. The minister was in the Meghalaya capital to dedicate works for the 4-lane of Shillong bypass and Jorabat-Barapani road. He had said the central government would be ‘encouraging local contractors in the region to take up civil works for road projects with the aim of providing employment to the local population’. The Centre had also asked the north-eastern states — Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh — to acquire land and obtain the necessary regulatory clearances after which the Ministry of Road Transport and the National Highways Authority of India would build those roads. “These measures will ease the bottlenecks in establishing the road projects,” he had said. He added that the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) will provide 10 per cent machinery and 10 per cent resource mobilization to the local contractors in advance to commence work on the highways.