Mumbai: Even as state-run National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) received tepid response from the private sector for road projects, Union Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the government wants to award more projects on PPP and hybrid model.
"No one (private players) was ready to participate in the PPP-based projects as they had lost faith (in the previous government). However, to encourage private participation, we have also introduced a hybrid model, where we will share the risk with them," Gadkari told reporters in Mumbai.
He said there is a renewed interest among private players, which was visible in the recent bidding for three road projects worth Rs 4,000 crore.
"The situation has changed in the last two months when we saw a number of companies bidding for three road projects -- 97.7km Shivpuri-Guna (Madhya Pradesh), 20km long Hospet- Chitradurga (Karnataka) and Solapur-Vijapur (Maharashtra) -- which were awarded on premium. This shows their faith has been reinstated," he said.
Gadkari said the government will, in the next 15 days, finalise the bids for another three BOT road projects, including Agra-Etawah road project in Uttar Pradesh, Raipur- Bilaspur in Chhatisgarh and Mukarba Chowk to Panipat in Haryana.
In the hybrid model, he explained, the government will share 40% of the cost, while the remaining will be contributed by the developer. The government will provide all the approvals and clearances including land acquisition, environment clearance, utility shifting and approvals from the railways.
"The project will be awarded on annuity basis and we will also share 2% profit on bank interest. As we are ready to share the risk, we are hopeful of private participation. We will adopt any model to ensure that infrastructure is developed," Gadkari said.
He further said the government has set a target of awarding road projects worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore in the next six months.
"In the last one year, we have cleared nearly 80 projects worth Rs 3.8 lakh crore, which were stalled due to various reasons like land acquisition or environment clearance. We even terminated 44 projects. In next six months, we plan to award projects worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore on warfooting basis. This will result in giving employment to 36,000 people," the minister said.
He said the government has already signed agreements for nearly Rs 1 lakh crore worth projects.
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