Even though the pace of highway construction almost trebled to 35 km/day in the last five years, pure-play public-private partnerships (PPPs) are showing no signs of picking up. While there seems to be a growing burden on the government finances from the EPC and hybrid annuity models, minister for highways and transport Nitin Gadkari tells FE’s Surya Sarathi Ray that financing of the highway projects won’t be a problem in the medium term.
Tell us about your main achievements as the minister for road transport and highways over the last about five years.
When I became the minister, 403 projects worth Rs 3.85 lakh crore were struck. We formed a new policy and resolved 95% of problems. We also terminated around 45 projects that were found to be non-viable.
