Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari pitching for greater transparency and faster decision making at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has said that the government is planning to revamp the roads body.
NHAI which became operational in February 1995 and is responsible for the development, maintenance and management of national highways, witnessed its last restructuring in 2009 to enhance its institutional capacity. It was done to make it a multi-disciplinary professional body with quality financial management and contract management expertise.
The minister also emphasised on the need for reducing project costs and said, “We want to reduce the cost of the project and if we want to do that then we have to reduce the cost of material used for the project. Adding further, he slammed the cement industry for indulging in “cartelization” and said that it was pushing up costs for roads and highway projects. He also said that he will be approaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of “cartelization” by the cement industry.
The government had targeted awarding 8,000 km of road projects during the current financial year, majority of which will be built on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) basis and so far it has been able to award 7,000 km of projects.