The National Highways Authority of India hopes to exceed its annual target of 7,300 kilometers road projects by 13% to 9,000 kilometers for the current financial year almost double of what it had awarded last year.

A senior NHAI official said that “In the first four months, we have already awarded over 3,100 kilometers of road projects and will easily be able to cross the 9,000 kilometers mark by the end of this fiscal.”

The official said NHAI had wanted to set a target of over 9,000 kilometers this year but the Planning Commission had brought it down, saying NHAI would not be able to achieve it.

In FY12, NHAI had announced 59 projects covering 7,994 kilometers, with a total cost of INR 60,000 crore much less compared to the target of 96 projects covering 12,000 kilometers worth INR 100,000 crore for the last financial year, when Mr Kamal Nath was at the helm.

During his tenure, Mr Nath had come up with project plans for two financial years and had set a target of awarding a little over 200 projects worth INR 2,00,000 crore. However, NHAI could grant only a little over 70 projects and the 20 kilometers target per day remained on paper.

The award of road projects had slowed while UPA-I was in office. While the economic slowdown and the ensuing liquidity crunch had affected the performance keeping companies away, Mr TR Baalu’s performance as the road transport minister was also dissatisfactory.

In mid 2009 when UPA-II came to power, Mr Kamal Nath was brought in to reform the functioning of the ministry and NHAI. He had set a target to build 20 kilometers a day, increasing it from the earlier three km a day.

(Sourced from BS)