NHAI to clear Rs.2,000 cr road projects

Doing away with the procedural hurdles to fast track the flagship Bharatmala Project (BMP), the Transport ministry has recently empowered NHAI to clear itself projects entailing an investment upto Rs.2,000 crore. This means that projects could be sanctioned in a short period of 15 days as against the usual two to three months. The Bharatmala project, a dream project of PM envisages the construction of over 60,000 km of road network across the country. Rs.7 lakh crore projects were recently approved by the Cabinet. The latest decision covers projects to be developed under the PPP model. Earlier, the limit was Rs.1000 crore, which has seen a jump of 100%. Project approval before the new guideline was a long process normally taking more time to get approval for a project. But now, the NHAI could approve the projects in 15 days and that the move is to enhance delegation of power to NHAI for faster project implementation.