<div><strong>By Haider Ali Khan</strong><br><br>The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday (14 October) approved a one time fund infusion for physically incomplete languishing national highway projects. </div><div> </div><div>"The NH projects where construction has been 50 per cent completed till November 2014 will be eligible for this one time financial assistance," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after the cabinet meeting. </div><div> </div><div>"This will be a tripartite agreement between the funding agency, the NHAI and the builder," he added.</div><div> </div><div>CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval for fund infusion to revive and complete languishing NH projects under the extension of provision available for BOT build-operate-transfer (Toll) projects to BOT (annuity) projects, an official statement said.<br><br>The decision will allow provisions of the Policy Circular of NHAI issued in June this year on one-time fund infusion for BOT (Toll) projects to be extended and made applicable in case of languishing projects on BOT (Annuity) mode, it added. </div><div> </div><div>This infusion of fund would be a one-time dispensation for all such projects that have been languishing as on 1st November, 2014. AII such cases and the amount of bridge fund required in each case shall be approved by the authority, on a case to case basis. </div><div> </div><div>The highways sector is struggling to roll out stuck projects worth Rs 3.8 lakh crore but the developers in many cases are now shying away. </div><div> </div><div>Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhibber has said last week that banks which have been "happily over- financing" road projects without necessary due-diligence were also to be blamed for this problem and there are nearly 70 projects that have got funding at escalated costs.</div>
