New Delhi: In a bid to prevent work on road projects from coming to a halt, the Government is considering a proposal to allow the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to extend working capital loans to developers. In a meeting held on March 7, the roads secretary and NHAI officials discussed the possibility of such a move with road developers.

AGARTALA, March 8

The work of road construction at the National Highway, NH 28, near the Sitrampurmajha village in Basti district has been stopped to allow a stray tiger to move into Sohelwa forest via the Gonda reserve forest. The tiger had strayed from Ghazipur and had moved into Basti district and has been keeping the Forest department officials on their toes.

SHILLONG, March 6

Jammu: The National Highway NH1A that had been envisaged to be an all-weather freeway between Jammu-Srinagar by 2010 under the North-South Corridor Connectivity Project has missed its deadline.

Kolkata: At a time when the Centre is banking on infrastructure projects to combat the economic slowdown, over Rs 13,000-crore worth of NHAI projects which add up to 1055 km are being delayed because of inadequate government support. NHAI has halved the portion of grant accorded to private partners from 20% to 10% for all nine projects under the National Highway Development Project (NHDP) V.

AGARTALA, March 4

New Delhi: In the run-up to the polls and just before the election code of conduct kicked in, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government cleared infrastructure projects worth Rs 5,220 crore in the last ten days of February. According to an official release, the public private partnership appraisal committee (PPPAC) granted approval to seven projects in the sectors of roads and ports.

THE government has cleared two port projects and five highway projects with a total cost of Rs 5,220 crore to be executed jointly by private developers and various government agencies, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

Excerpts from Arun Shourie's speech in Rajya Sabha on Interim Budget
Arun Shourie / New Delhi March 1, 2009, 0:12 IST

Arun ShourieHaving stated in the Budget,