Pushing rural infrastructure next priority: Kamal Nath

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has scuttled its road contract awarding target from 12000 km to 7000 km by June 2010 as against its earlier targeted date of March 31, 2010. Ministry, which is currently building 12 to 13 km of road per day, will also achieve the target of building 20 km of road per day by June 2010.

Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Road Transport and Highways Minister, Kamal Nath, said that the Ministry in a groundbreaking decision has successfully removed bottlenecks dissuading builders to participate in PPP projects in road sector. Ministry has done away with exit clause and others related to the system of shortlisting top six players for awarding of contracts. And also the one pertaining to in principle prior approval of the Planning Commission for every PPP project across sectors. All these conditions were making it nearly impossible to achieve the laid down targets in the road sector.

When quipped by NBM Media about his next top most priority in the road sector, he replied that revamping rural road network is next in his scheme of things. Indian rural sector offers huge potential and Government is committed to providing village to village connectivity by building and strengthening rural road network. Move, in turn, will facilitate instant evacuation and transporting of fruits, vegetables and other agriculture produce to urban areas thereby boosting per capita income of rural masses.