National Highways
The Central Government is responsible for development and maintenance of the National Highways system. The total length of the network, as of today, is 70,548 km. The Ministry is carrying out development and maintenance work of National Highways through three agencies, viz. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), State Public Works Departments (PWDs) and Border Road Organisation (BRO).
In order to give boost to the economic development of the country, the Government has embarked upon a massive National Highways Development Project (NHDP) in the country. The NHDP is the largest highway project ever undertaken in the country. The NHDP is being implemented by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
NHDP Phase I& II: The Phase I & Phase II of NHDP comprises
- Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), i.e. National Highways connecting four metropolitan cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai & Kolkata having an aggregate length of 5,846 km.,
- North-South & East-West Corridor (NS-EW) which comprises 4-laning of 7,142 km of National Highways connecting North-South corridor from Srinagar to Kanyakumari with Cochin-Salem spur and East-West corridor from Silchar to Porbandar,
- 380 Km length of National Highways are proposed to be upgraded to 4-lane standards for providing connectivity to 12 major ports of the country to NHDP, and
- Upgradation of 962 km of other important National Highways. The total estimated cost of the NHDP Phase I & II having a total length of 14,145 km is about Rs.80,626 crore.
NHDP Phase-III: NHDP Phase-III involves 4/6 laning of 12,109 km of NH having high-density corridor connecting State capitals, important tourist places, economically important areas etc. on PPP basis at an estimated cost of Rs.80,626 crore.
NHDP Phase-IV: Phase IV of NHDP comprising 2-laning with paved shoulders of 20,000 kms of National Highway. The Government has approved the upgradation/strengthening of 5,000 KM of single/intermediate/two lane National Highways to two lane with paved shoulders under NHDP Phase-IV A on BOT (Toll) and BOT (Annuity) basis at an estimated cost of Rs.6950.00 crore.
NHDP Phase-V: Phase V of NHDP comprising six laning of 6,500 km of existing 4 lane highways on Design Build Finance & Operate (DBFO) basis at estimated cost of Rs.41,210 crore. This includes 5,700 km of GQ and 1800 kms at other selected stretches.
NHDP Phase-VI: Phase VI envisages development of 1,000 km fully access controlled expressways under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model following Design-Build- Finance-Operate (DBFO) approach at an estimated cost of Rs.16,680 crore.
NHDP Phase-VII: Phase VII envisages construction of stand alone Ring Roads, Bypasses, Grade Separators, Flyovers, elevated roads, tunnels, road over bridges, underpasses, service road etc on BOT (Toll) mode at an estimated cost of Rs.16,680 Crores.
Special Accelerated Road Development Programme For North-East Region (SARDP-NE)
This programme has been framed with the objective to upgrade NHs connecting State Capitals to 2/4 lane, to provide connectivity of 58 District Headquarter towns of NER by at least 2 lane road, improving road connectivity to remote places and places of strategic importance in NE region. The programme envisages improvement of about 9,760 km (5,104 km of NHs and about 4,656 km of State roads and roads of Strategic Importance). The programme has been divided into 3 parts, Phase 'A' covering 2616 km length of road, Phase 'B' covering 4825 km and Arunachal Pradesh Package of Roads and Highways covering 2319 kms. Phase 'A' of SARDP-NE and Arunachal Pradesh Package of Roads and Highways has been approved by the Cabinet for implementation and Phase 'B' has been approved for DPR preparation only. This will also ensure the connectivity of all District Headquarters, which are still not connected to the NHs in the eighth NE States. Up till June 30th 2009, estimates amounting to Rs.3406 crore have been approved for improvement of 1058 km length of roads under SARDP-NE. OUt of 1058 km length approved by the Ministry, 450 km has been completed at an expenditure of Rs.1,796 crore.
SARDP-NE includes the projects on the PPP mode and the projects with 1315 km length has been identified on the BOT (Annuity) mode, under Phase 'A' and Arunachal Pradesh Package of Roads and Highways at a tentative cost of about Rs.11,550 crore. Against 1315 km length identified under BOT (annuity), feasibility report for 2 road projects aggregating to 718 km length has been finalized and RFP issued to the pre-qualified bidders. The note for CCI for these projects is being submitted to Cabinet Secretariat.
Public-Private Partnership
Traditionally, the road projects were financed only out of the budgetary grants and were controlled/supervised by the Government. The road sector has attracted very limited private sector participation in the past. While the traffic has been constantly increasing at a rapid pace, the traditional system of financing road projects through budgetary allocation has proved to be inadequate. It was in this context that the necessity for exploring the innovative means of financing the highly capital intensive road projects was felt.
The beginning of a significant private sector participation in road projects was made with the launching of India's largest road project - National Highways Development Project (NHDP). To encourage private sector participation, several initiatives have been taken by the government; which include Declaration of the road sector as an industry.
- Provision of capital subsidy up to 40% of the project cost to make projects commercially viable.
- 100% tax exemption in any consecutive 10 years out of the first 20 years of a project.
- Provision of encumbrance free site for work, i.e. the Government shall meet all expenses relating to land and other pre-construction activities.
- Foreign Direct Investment up to 100% in road sector.
- Easier external commercial borrowing norms.
- Higher concession period, (up to 30 years).
- Right to collect and retain toll.
Source: National Portal Content Management Team, Reviewed on: 15-02-2011 
