NEW DELHI: As government focuses on monetisation of completed highway projects, now most new construction of national highways (NHs) will be undertaken on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, instead of fully government-funded works projects or EPC.
In a major policy shift, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will bid out nearly 85% of the highway projects on PPP. The road wing of the highways ministry, for the first time, will also undertake some new projects with private investment.
The decision has been taken, considering that the projects built under PPP are of better quality and require less maintenance compared to the government- funded projects. Union road transport secretary Anurag Jain said the bigger projects, costing more than Rs 500 crore, would preferably be taken up on PPP mode. Under PPP, projects are offered under build-operate-transfer (BOT) model and the hybrid annuity model (HAM).
