In doing so, the government has finally conceded to the long-standing demand of the Ministry of Surface Transport (MoST). In fact, MoST had asked for the cess from diesel and petrol, which goes directly to the consolidated fund of India, to be put into a separate fund so as to eliminate the possibility that the funds may not be made available for road development and may be used by the government for other purposes. The announcement has brought the golden quadrilateral and the north-south, east-west corridor expressway projects a little closer to reality.

The three-day seminar has been organised by MoST, NHAI and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). Although the first step in finding finance forthe projects seem to have been made, the first day of the conference has indicated that state government have yet to give their untwisting support.

While transport ministers from nine states, including Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala were present, none made any commitments towards the expressway projects. With the state government responsible for land acquisition, their cooperation will be critical for the success of the expressways. Regardless of the central government's plans the state governments have their own agenda for road development. Ministers of some state government have asked MoST to take into account some of their needs before proceeding with the expressways through their regions.

Outlining the action plan of the NHAI, chairman Deepak Dasgupta said that the golden quadrilateral would be given the priority. High density sections had already been identified and 10 sections where there are no problems of land acquisition will be taken up first.