Mumbai, March 24 Concerned over the slow pace of spending in the highways sector, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that the government can mobilize up to Rs 8 lakh crore per year for road projects.
Highway construction has great relevance from a socio-economic perspective, and higher spending can help boost the country's economic growth, Gadkari said, adding that every Re 1 spent on infrastructure generates Rs 3 worth of economic activity.
"Our problem is that we are unable to spend effectively. Our spending rate is too slow," Gadkari said, speaking at the listing ceremony of the NHAI-sponsored Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust at the BSE.
The government can raise Rs 5 lakh crore per year from the market, in addition to the budgetary support of Rs 3.2 lakh crore, based on the strong asset profile in the highways sector.
Citing the Dwarka Expressway project near the national capital as an example of the trickle-down benefits of infrastructure spending, he said the stretch that was previously a forest has attracted over Rs 8 lakh crore in real estate investments.
Gadkari said that the ground-breaking for a series of projects involving up to Rs 40,000 crore in spending in and around Pune will be done within the next fortnight. These include the Pune-Aurangabad Expressway, as well as four other projects.
The minister also mentioned plans to build a new Mumbai-Bengaluru express highway, which will reduce travel time between the country's financial and tech capitals to five hours.
Regarding the Mumbai-Goa national highway, Gadkari said that issues such as land acquisition have led to delays in the implementation of the project, which started in 2010.
The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways said that 93 per cent of the highway work is complete, and construction will be finished in another two months. He will also be inspecting the work on April 10 this year.
The ministry does not begin work on a project until a significant portion of the land acquisition is complete, he said.
He admitted that the pace of highway construction has slowed to 32-34 km per day from the earlier 40 km, even as the ministry is targeting to increase it to 60 km per day.
When asked about the quality of road construction, Gadkari said that the number of complaints is very low, and that placing the responsibility on contractors has helped.
The ministry, which is targeting to convert all 900 toll plazas into multi-lane free-flow plazas by the end of the year, will soon be posting 105 tenders for the creation of such facilities.
Gadkari said that the government is saving over Rs 8,000 crore per year due to technology implementations at the toll plazas, as operating costs are reduced.