The B K Chaturvedi committee appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suggest measures to re-energise the roads sector has called for scrapping the controversial norm that limits the number of players that can be shortlisted for projects. And has recommended over-arching powers to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, curbing the clout the Planning Commission enjoyed so far.

In its report submitted to the Prime Minister on August 25, it has recommended that the Ministry should have complete authority and powers to not only amend the bidding document and award projects but also to sequence the bidding and re-engineer projects to cut costs.

At present, decisions to make changes to the Model Concession Agreement (the bidding document) and award of projects go through a multi-layered approval process — an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), a committee of secretaries (CoS), the Committee on Infrastructure chaired by the PM, and the public Private Partnership Approval Committee (PPPAC).

In the last couple of years, confusion has prevailed in the roads sector with the Planning Commission getting into the nitty gritty of bidding procedure and calling for meetings with developers. Further, there were frequent changes to the MCA creating uncertainty in the minds of developers.

When contacted, Chaturvedi told The Indian Express that the committee’s report was being assessed by the government. He declined to give details but officials involved in the exercise said the idea was to ensure that Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath’s ambitious plan of building 20 km of roads a day fructifies.

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