India to invest $1tn in road projects, says PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday said India plans to invest $1tn in infrastructure projects in the next five years, as it would help the country achieve the desired 9% growth rate. Addressing a conference on “challenges and opportunities in public-private partnership in national highways” in New Delhi, Singh said a fair treatment would be meted out to both private and government players in infrastructure. “Good road infrastructure is crucial to achieving 9% growth rate, targeted for the next Five Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17), and adequate investment would be made towards that,” he said. “Infrastructure will play a key role in achieving our growth target of 9%. Our effort is to double the investment of $500mn in the 11th Five Year plan to around $1tn in the 12th plan.” He said “it is also necessary to ensure projects are awarded in a fair and transparent manner to avoid suspicion of favouritism.” “We must remember that these are public projects where public interest must be foremost in our mind,” the prime minister said.“It is necessary to demonstrate that the award, construction and operation of these projects is based on a fair and transparent approach which eliminates any suspicion of favouritism or what might be described as crony capitalism,” he added.The United Progressive Alliance government’s second tenure has been marred by a slew of scandals, hurting its image. Senior cabinet ministers have said that various government agencies were now hesitant to give out procurement orders for fear of their decisions being questioned later.India has a national highway network with a total length of over 71,000 km, of which about 20,000km of national highways still operate with only a single lane.“A time-bound programme for widening these roads to two-lane standards would be taken up through turn-key contracts that would ensure speedy and cost-effective outcomes,” the prime minister said.Singh also urged state governments to formulate their respective ‘State Highway Development Programmes’ for a co-ordinated and time-bound development of roads.He said good roads are an essential element of infrastructure for providing industry and agriculture with the connectivity to markets for growth in production and trade, and more generally for improving the quality of life of citizens.The prime minister expressed happiness that India has attained the second rank in the world among developing countries in attracting private investment for infrastructure projects. “The state governments have a very crucial role to play in the road sector. While all roads, beginning from rural roads to state highways lie entirely in their domain, the support of state governments is absolutely essential for development and operation of the national highways as well,” Singh said.Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi said that the government would award contracts under the public-private partnership to lay around 7,800km of national highways at an estimated cost of $11.1bn by the end of this year. “Contracts worth Rs21,000 crore (Rs210bn) have already been awarded in the first four months,” he said and voiced hope that the target of 20km of national highways every day would be met.