In 2011-12, projects covering 7,994 km were awarded

After a three-month lull, the government has set the ball rolling for giving out Rs 14,000-crore worth of national highway projects. About 40 companies will be in the fray for 30-odd projects in this tranche. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the road transport and highways ministry are currently engaged in appraisal of the request for qualifications, said a senior ministry official.

National highways will now be constructed on the concepts of spot improvement and corridor redevelopment to take the financial burden off the government and make it more public-friendly.

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways C. P. Joshi has approved two pilot projects in this regard. At the Hero Honda Chowk on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway the spot improvement concept would be experimented and the corridor redevelopment concept would be executed on the Delhi-Dasna section of NH-24.

The record 8,000 km of road projects awarded last year has just got clipped by 29 per cent.

In what spells trouble for the infrastructure sector, around Rs 25,000-crore highways projects are awaiting funding and seeking extension of financial closure deadline. These projects constitute 23 packages and comprise 2,500 km of construction.

The project award pace of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has also slowed down with just over 600 km of highway projects awarded in the first half of the financial year against the ambitious target of 9,500 km set by the prime minister, said Minister for Roads and Highways C P Joshi.

New Delhi: Should the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway be bought back by the government and nationalized?

New Delhi The government on Thursday approved nine road projects of 1,226 km and worth R11,597 crore from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, as part of its effort to give an impetus to investments and accelerate economic growth.

A finance ministry statement said on Thursday that the relevant Empowered Committee cleared these road projects. The Viability Gap Funding (VGF) involved is R2,295 crore, it said. These projects are at an advanced stage of bidding/construction and are expected to result in disbursal of R500.00 crore from the Centre during 2012-13, it added.

New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the shipping ministry, the governments of West Bengal and Orissa to amicably resolve the Kolkata Port limit expansion issue within two weeks.

The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) and the West Bengal government have challenged the Orissa HC’s judgement that scrapped the notifications issued by the ministry of shipping on October 22, 2010, altering the Kolkata Port limits and by the port trust on November 10 giving effect to the earlier one.

With more than 400 road and National Highways projects stuck for want of environment, forest and wildlife clearances, the Centre is planning for a single window to remove the bottlenecks.

New Delhi: As 39 highway projects are awaiting financial closure and 15-17 are witnessing time-overruns, the highways ministry officials will brainstorm with developers, bankers, financial institut

In a first, the road transport ministry is firming up plans to upgrade around 10,000 km of national highways across the country in two years.