The government will bid out over ₹2 lakh crore worth of road projects on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model by March 2024, giving a renewed push to the public-private partnership in road construction, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has said. This shift from the existing emphasis on engineering, procurement, and contract (EPC) model will drive private players to build better quality roads because they have to maintain them for 15 years, Gadkari told Yogima Seth Sharma, Deepshikha Sikarwar and Vinay Pandey in an interview. Edited excerpts:
