NHAI awards Rs.35,000-cr contracts

The government has already awarded 40 road projects of Rs. 35,000-cr to be built on the basis of the hybrid annuities model (HAM) in the past one year, said official sources, elaborating that more than a dozen of these are stuck for want of financial commitments but the hurdle would be cleared shortly. As a matter of fact, it is mandatory to have financial closure within 150 days of the projects being awarded, there is a real chance that score of them may fall wayside if corrective measures are not taken on time. As opposed to the build-own-transfer model, the HAM model was tailored to reduce the risk for the developers with National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) shouldering the obligation to acquire land, obtain the environment clearances, estimating traffic, and collecting the toll, they insisted.