PMs weekend review of progress in road projects

The Prime Minister is set to review the pace of development of road infrastructure in the country this weekend.

The Prime Minister is set to review the pace of development of road infrastructure in the country this weekend. According to officials in the ministry of road transport and highways,Manmohan Singh will not only look at the physical progress but also the various bottlenecks that were raised by stakeholders in the previous review held three months ago.

The PM plans to take a review as the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) is one of the flagship programmes of the government towards development of world class infrastructure in the country, the official said. The PM would also be apprised of the issues discussed and steps taken in the empowered group of ministers (e-GoM) that will meet on Friday for the first time. The e-GoM is comprised of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee,road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The decision to constitute an expert committee under member Planning Commission B K Chaturvedi was also taken after the PM took his first review of the sector. Ever since,the committees recommendations giving sweeping powers to the ministry of road transport and highways to make changes to the request for qualification (RFQ) and request for proposal (RFP) documents to make them more attractive developers have been approved and are in the process of getting notified.

The e-GoM is expected to look into the issue of transfer of Rs 10,000 crore of India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL) funds to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and creating norms for allowing securitised finance in the country. The Reserve Bank of India does not recognise securitised finance so far and the ministry wants to exercise this option to being in more investments. The E-GoM will also look into ironing out all other inter-ministerial issues related to the financing of infrastructure projects,especially those related to banks and the RBI.

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