With a view to increasing private sector participation in road construction, the government has decided that all future projects under NHDP III, IV, V, VI and VII will be taken up either on BOT-toll or BOT-annuity basis. This includes a 400-km expressway between Vadodara and Mumbai and such others to be indentified by the World Bank under the NHDP-IV.

The UPA government has already decided to increase the length of roads for BOT contracts even under the NHDP II or the North-South-East-West corridor, which has earlier taken up mostly on engineering procurement, and civil construction (EPC) contracts. This follows a directive from the prime minister who held a review meeting of the road programme recently.

Also, to avoid the delay in land acquisition, shifting of utilities and environmental clearances seen in the NHDP-I and II phases, an empowered committee of secretaries under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary, Mr BK Chaturvedi, will meet quarterly. One such meeting has already taken place and cleared land acquisition from the defence and Airports Authority of India for the construction of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway. This stretch is the part of Golden Quadrilateral 92 per cent of which is likely to be completed by December 2005.

The Union minister for road transport & highways, Mr TR Baalu, said that while the BOT contracts for six projects of NHDP-III A have already been awarded covering 421 km, 28 more projects covering 2,308 km will be awarded by August 2005.

NHDP III aims at upgradation and four laning of 4,000 km of national highways. While NHDP III is a fresh project for the UPA government, it has decided to increase the length of road to be awarded on BOT basis even for the ongoing NHDP II. Thus, of NSEW corridor of which civil contract is to be awarded, 2,197 km have been earmarked for private participation. Of this, 978 km will be on BOT basis while 324 km would be on BOT annuity basis.

For NHDP IV which will be widen with paved shoulders 20,000 km of roads not covered by NHDP I-III, the government proposes to adopt the BOT-annuity model. NHDP V will widen 5,000 km of national highways, including sections with density traffic or corridors of tourist and economic importance, to 6-lanes on BOT basis.

Under NHDP VI, 1,000 km of expressways would come up under which 400 km Vadodara-Mumbai section has already been identified. NHDP VII will bring in ring roads, flyovers and bypasses on BOT basis.