Highway Sector- Riding the Waves of New Change
S.K.Khanna
Developments taken place in the highway sector during the last few months have proved wrong the French saying that more it is changed, the more it remains the same. Riding the waves of new change, the road and highway sector in the country is inching its way forward to regain its past glory with revival of investors interest taking place in the sector scripting a new architecture of policy and implementation that anticipates the problems and suggest remedies. As a matter of fact, the revival of investor interest can be credited to 21 'out of box thinking' pulling out the sector from sluggishness to an attractive destination for the investors interested to construct world-class roads and highways in India. The significant changes include relaxing of the exit policy for the investors, innovative payment methods based on hybrid annuity and engineering, procurement and construction business models, reviving of stalled projects, leasing 104 existing toll –able projects to the private companies and global funding agencies. And the latest being, government giving 10% of road project cost in advance to ensure cash flow for starting highway construction and building mega NHs projects on lines of Golden Quadrilateral.