Roadblock to Road Developments in India

The government had set a target of spending $500 billion on infrastructure between 2007 and 2012. However, the progress across sectors has been uneven.

Taking the case of roads in particular, Kamal Nath, the road transport and highways minister, had set an ambitious target of building 20 km of road length per day and had taken several steps to meet this target. However, problems like land acquisition, dispute resolution and funds continue to be roadblocks despite over 80 land acquisition units being set up in the states. A road network of a mere 2,008km was added during FY10 compared to its target of 7,000km.

Also, NHAI’s road construction activity, which picked up during the four months ended March 2010, has slowed down again. The road length built by it fell to 6.9 km a day in April 2010 and further to 5km in May as compared to the 8-14 km a day built during December 2009-March 2010.

In April, the roads minister lowered NHAI’s target to around 12-13km per day for 2010-11 from the earlier 20km per day. He cited lack of adequate infrastructure and technology as the main reasons for this. Now, the government has set up a target to construct 4,770 km of national highways during the current financial year. As of May 2010, up to 684 km roads have been laid.

In 2010-11, roads and highways up to 7,454 km (20.4 km per day) are scheduled to get completed. Nearly half of this length is expected to be built by NHAI during the year.

The advisor to the Planning Commission says it may also take over two years for the government to meet its 20km per day road construction target. A target of awarding contracts/concessions of 9,000km is set for 2010-11. The government had set a target of 9,806km, of which only 2,609km were actually awarded in the previous year. The exuberance among private players that was visible a year back, when Kamal Nath took over as road transport minister, also seems to be fading out.

 References:

India May Miss Key Infra Target, Adviser Tell PlanCom (Reuters)

NHAI Will Need Rs 64,00Cr More To Finance Highway Pro-jects Till FY31 (FE)