<p> </p><p align="justify"><span class="dropthecap">T</span>he government will soon announce a slew of changes in its road policy, which will determine how national highway projects are awarded and financed. The new policy will offer a flexible approach.<br /><br />There are three modes of delivery — BoT (build, operate and transfer) toll, where road projects are given to developers who collect toll revenues; BoT (annuity), where developers build and own the road but get money from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) on an annual basis; and EPC (engineering procurement construction), where NHAI owns the road after it is built by the contractor. According to a Cabinet decision, implementation of road projects on all three modes of delivery would be done "concurrently rather than sequentially".<br /><br />In another Cabinet decision, the largest highway programme, NHDP IV (upgradation of 20,000 km of highways), would mostly be undertaken with government support. <br /><br />Transport Minister Kamal Nath just finalised a work plan for 2009-10, which includes 12,652 km of fresh projects. Of these, over 8,000 km would be through the BoT (toll route). As part of the financing plan, apart from appointing a special group of ministers to sort out some outstanding matters, it has been decided that a third of the total approved borrowing of Rs 30,000 crore for IIFCL (India Infrastructure Finance Corporation) will be transferred to NHAI. Added to this, it has also been decided that the ministry of finance would provide a letter of comfort to NHAI that confirms availability of cess funds "till at least 2030-31".</p> <script type="text/javascript"> var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } </script><div>(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 30-11-2009)</div>
