Ministry plans sops for road developers

NEW DELHI: The highways ministry will soon seek Cabinet nod to allow private road builders to "exit" from projects soon after construction is over. The move comes after the proposal mooted by NHAI remained unresolved even after several rounds of discussion in an inter-ministerial group on highways.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has formulated the plan to speed up the exit of contractors, who take up projects under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) route, claiming that this would unleash substantial capital kept in finished projects as companies' equity. It has also claimed that this flow of capital would help cash-strapped developers take up new highway stretches.

New rules introduced in 2009 allow developers to exit two years after a project is completed. Now, NHAI wants developers to be allowed to sell their stake as soon as tolling on the stretch starts. Developers of around 100 projects, which run into thousands of crores, do not have this option for projects bagged before 2009. In case of projects awarded before 2009, developers had to keep at least 26% stake in projects till the contract ended.

If they are allowed to exit from the projects, firms of similar net worth specializing in operation and maintenance would take over for the rest of the contract period.

While NHAI and the highways ministry have been pushing for retrospective effect of the proposed move, expenditure department and Planning Commission have reportedly objected to this. Sources said the two feel that retrospective effect would bring "undue benefit" to private companies.

"The financial situation is very bad now. You have no other option than take steps to increase capital flow in this sector so that private players have requisite equity to bid for projects. Since banks are also demanding higher percentage of equity in any highway project, we are pushing for some relaxation. We will put the case of retrospective effect of the proposal before the Cabinet," a ministry official said.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Ministry plans sops for road developers

Dengan url

https://sehatputihgigiku.blogspot.com/2012/11/ministry-plans-sops-for-road-developers.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Ministry plans sops for road developers

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Ministry plans sops for road developers

sebagai sumbernya