Nod sought to expedite award of road projects

New Delhi: The ministry of road transport and highways has begun seeking special permission to award road projects after the pace of awards slowed down considerably since November 2023 in the absence of a new scheme to replace the Bharatmala Pariyojana.

The National Highways Authority of India, under the ministry of road transport and highways, has invited bids for two stretches of greenfield access controlled highways in Jharkhand on the hybrid annuity model (HAM).

Government sources told ET that these are few of the projects for which the ministry has sought special permission.

The NHAI, as per the bid document dated July 4, invited proposal for construction of four lane access controlled greenfield highway from Kereya to Keyondpani, covering a distance of 30.347 km and entailing an investment of Rs 978.99 crore and another four lane access controlled greenfield highway from Keyondpani to Latra, totalling 43.7 km and entailing an investment of Rs 918.78 crore.

Both these projects are part of the section of NH 143D in Jharkhand.

The ministry had in November 2023 said no new liabilities will be created under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase - 1 until the revised scheme is approved.

As a result, the National Highways Authority of India did not award a single mega highway project in the first three months of the current fiscal year except one project of 4 km until May and that too with the approval from the Election Commission of India.

In July, NHAI awarded just one project of 1.5 km under the National Highways Original (NHO) scheme.

In 2023-24, the road ministry had awarded 611 km of road in the first quarter (April-June) compared to 969 km awarded during April-June 2022-23.