A whopping Rs 90 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) is locked in arbitration cases related to road projects in India, according to a new World Bank study released in Delhi today. Releasing its new report on Indian road construction industry, the Bank said that about 40 per cent projects in India suffer cost over-runs of 25-50 per cent and 70 per cent projects are completed with time over-runs.

To tide over delays in highway work on acquired stretches, the Government has decided that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will have to vest back all unused land to the original owner if highway building does not start in five years. Moreover, the land-owner will not have to pay for re-possession.

US pension and private equity firms are

The road transport and highways ministry is pitching for a $3-billion World Bank loan to convert 6,300 kilometer of single-lane national highways to two lane. There are a total of 19,000 km single-lane national highways in the country.

New Delhi: The government, keen to kickstart the stalled road programme, has drawn up plans to unroll an ambitious network of expressways to boost connectivity across key states over next few years.

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.

The Prime Minister has constituted a new committee to suggest fast-track mechanisms for the resolution of inter-ministerial issues in road and highway projects that do not require the approval of the Cabinet Committee of Infrastructure.

THE government will award road projects worth Rs 2,00,000 crore in the next two years, road transport & highways minister Kamal Nath said.

Mihir Mishra / New Delhi July 20, 2009, 0:08 IST

Kamal NathThe leisurely evening walk that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) got used to in the past five years is set to take on the speed of a 100-metre sprint under a new coach.

To build 1,000 km of expressways at an estimated cost of Rs 16,680 crore.

Kamal NathUnion Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath today said the government was considering setting up an authority for expressways on the pattern of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in order to give impetus to infrastructure development in the country.