Ahamdabad:Government paid Rs 50 crore for toll exemption
The state government has been paying over Rs 35.94 lakh per day to the toll tax agency in lieu of the exemption given to small passenger vehicles and state-run buses from paying road levy on 12 state highways from August 15. The state government, in reply to a question by Khedbrahma MLA Ashwin Kotwal, stated that from August 15 to December 31, 2016, the toll agencies have raised a bill of Rs 86.21 crore against the exemption given to small passenger vehicles and state-run buses. So far, the government has paid Rs49.61 crore to the toll plazas. Officials said that as per the estimate, 86,000 vehicles pass through these state highways daily where 27 toll booths are located. The state government had announced that it will bear the toll tax and it will not be collected from people. The 12 state highways that became toll-free are 1 Ahmedabad-Mehsana, Vadodara-Halol, Ahmedabad-Viramgam-Maliya, Halol-Godhra-Shamlaji, Rajkot-Jamnagar-Vadinar, Himmatnagar Bypass, Kim-Mandvi Highway, Bhuj-Nakhatarana Highway, Kapadwanj-Modasa, Deesa-Gundri, Vadodara-Chhayapur and Bagodara-Bamnasore. Officials said that if the entire Rs86.21 crore was paid, it would mean that the state will be paying Rs62.41 lakh per day in lieu of toll tax exemption. Phillip Lindsay Authentic Jersey
NHAI rolls out UP Gate revamp plan
The inter-state border at UP Gate will look very different in the near future with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) rolling out a comprehensive decongestion plan as part of the widening of NH-24 to 14 lanes. Central to that plan is a new flyover that will come up over UP Gate, as an extension of the existing Ghazipur flyover. This new flyover will end on the highway before the bridge over the Hindon canal in Indirapuram. The makeover of the UP Gate area has also factored in ramps for the elevated road to Raj Nagar Extension that the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) is building. The elevated road is being built perpendicular to NH-24 as a single corridor with a median verge, along the Hindon canal in Indirapuram. But before it merges with the highway, the GDA has decided to bifurcate the road and build two ramps. One ramp will pass under the NH-24 bridge on the Hindon canal and marge with the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway of the highway. The other ramp — meant for traffic headed for Raj Nagar Extension and Kanawani — will terminate on the opposite side of NH-24, on the Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway. The integrated plan has been formulated by GDA and NHAI. The new 12-lane flyover that will be built on NH-24 is part of the first package of the widening project, which has already started and has a completion target of 910 days. NHAI (project director) in Ghaziabad RB Singh told TOI, “Construction work on the flyover will commence as soon as additional lanes on either sides of the highway are ready to use. This will allow us to devise a traffic plan so that vehicles are diverted through the new lanes leaving the stretch of NH-24 free for construction work. There is no separate budget for the flyover and its cost will be met from the sum allocated by the ministry of road transport and highways for the first section of the NH-24 widening project. The plan to merge the elevated road with NH-24 has been chalked out with GDA.” The GDA, meanwhile, is undertaking construction work at a rapid pace on the last leg of the 10.3km elevated road project. “The elevated road will help divert traffic by allowing signal-free rides both from and to Raj Nagar Extension. The six-lane elevated flyway is being built on 228 pillars. The road will be ready for use by the latter half of this year,” GDA executive engineer Chakresh Jain said. Jimmy Garoppolo Authentic Jersey
Kochi:Flyover projects get new lease of life
Giving a new lease of life to Vyttila and Kundanoor flyover projects that were on the backburner for quite some time, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) started a feasibility study a few days ago. The study, which includes the overall development of EdappallyThuravoor stretch of the highway and the construction of flyovers, will be completed within a period of four to five months. After starting the construction of flyovers at Edappally and Palarivattom, the state government decided to construct these flyovers. If NHAI constructed the flyovers, then motorists would have to pay a toll and to avoid this scenario and minimize land acquisition, the state government decided to construct them on its own. The previous-UDF government had given the administrative sanction for the project. Later, the state finance department raised objection citing fund crunch. When the LDF govern ment assumed office, PWD wrote to NHAI to take up the job. But, NHAI turned down the request and last month, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan held discussions with the Centre. Following the chief minister’s request, NHAI started the feasibility study. “We have already started the feasibility study. It will be completed in four or five months,” said NHAI project director Chadrasekhar Reddy . Officials with the PWD’s NH wing sad NHAI would be in charge of the overall development of the EdappallyThuravoor stretch. “NHAI would be preparing a detailed report on developing the stretch. As the stretch has become a four-lane way , NHAI would be focusing on providing additional facilities.The project would include measures to ensure smooth flow of vehicles as well as accident control and safety measures,” a top official of the NH wing. Mike Reilly Womens Jersey
Toll Operators Yet To Get Compensation For Demonetisation Loss
For 23 days after the prime minister announced the demonetisation exercise on November 8, toll collection remained suspended across the country. It has been two months since collections resumed but operators are yet to be compensated for their losses as promised by the government. “No, we haven’t received anything yet. Whatever we have lost (during demonetisation), has to be compensated. The fight is still on,” said Isaac George, director and CFO, GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd. that runs the Jaipur-Kishangarh and Deoli-Kota expressways in Rajasthan The Ministry of Roads, Transport, and Highways and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had decided to make the national highways toll-free to give relief to commuters facing cash crunch after the note ban. The government had then decided that the toll concessionaires would be reimbursed up to 75 percent of the total loss in collection. Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman, Feedback Infra, an infrastructure services provider, also tweeted that toll companies are yet to get compensation. Feedback Infra advises infrastructure companies like Larsen & Toubro, Indian Railways and Metro Rail. MEP Infrastructure & Developers Ltd., which operates 25 toll plazas across seven states, including all five entry points into Mumbai, has claimed about Rs 48 crore but hasn’t received anything, the company said in an email. IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd., which runs the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, has claimed Rs 150 crore as toll revenue loss due to demonetisation, the company had said in a post-earnings conference call with analysts. Virendra Mhaiskar, chairman and managing director of the company, had said that the NHAI would reimburse interest expense and operation and maintenance revenue loss in cash. The profit and principal amount repayment would be compensated by extending the concession period, he had said. Mhaiskar had said the company would receive full cash reimbursement from the Maharashtra government as part of the concession agreement. When contacted by BloombergQuint, IRB Infrastructure refused to comment on the story. GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd., however, wants full compensation in cash. The company has claimed about Rs 22.5 crore as total revenue loss during the demonetisation period. Issac George said the government has gone back on its word and has agreed to pay only the operation and maintenance costs instead of the total revenue loss. GVK Power wants more clarity from the government on the compensation, George added. Korbinian Holzer Authentic Jersey
Nitin Gadkari-led road ministry’s highway construction woefully slow at 18-23km/day; required target 41 km/day
The pace of highway construction has gathered momentum to reach at an average of 18.23 km/day till January-end of the current fiscal compared with 16.6 km/day in the 2015-16 fiscal. The pace, however, is still way lower than what is required to meet the construction target of 41 km/day set by the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) for this fiscal. Nitin Gadkari has recently said the pace of construction could reach to 30 km/day by March this year. The ministry has targeted to build 15,000-km highways in the current fiscal. In 2015-16, total highways construction was 6,061 km only. It has built 5,471 km highways in the April-January period of the current fiscal. Of the total construction till January-end, projects directly implemented by MoRTH was 3,466 km, against 3,217 km a year ago. NHAI constructed 2,005 km in the first ten months of this fiscal, compared with 1,532 km in the corresponding period last fiscal. Apart from the continued torpor in private investments — build–operate–transfer (BOT) projects have barely kicked off and the hybrid annuity model that mitigates developers’ risk too has seen only moderate success — over-optimistic targets were also to blame for the slippage, analysts said. This year’s construction target is 2.5 times what was accomplished last year. On the award front also, the 25,000-km target for the current fiscal is unlikely to be met, as only 8,183 km of project awards were made in April-January. The ministry is now hoping to award 15,000 km projects in the current fiscal. In the last fiscal, India had awarded 10,098 km highway projects. While NHAI awarded 2,912 km projects in April-January of FY17 compared with 3,145 km a year ago; MoRTH awarded 5,271 km against 4,495 km a year ago. Maximum projects (6,187 km) has been awarded through the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model while the remaining, 1,996 km, through the BOT (toll), BOT (annuity) and HAM models, sources said. Clearly, with private investments (read BOT projects) not gathering much steam, the Centre’s efforts to push activity in the sector with the use of its own funds (EPC projects) have brought only moderate results. The construction and award of highways in the April-January period this year was higher than a year ago by 15% and 7%, respectively. Gadkari had earlier blamed procedural delays in getting clearances for delay in project awards. The government has taken several steps to address the private investment famine in the sector: It eased the exit policy for developers to enable them invest in new projects and introduced the hybrid annuity model where the Centre bears 40% of the project cost. Russell Wilson Authentic Jersey
NHAI to float bids for monetising 10 projects by April
Buoyed by response from institutional investors from the Middle-East, Canada and the US, NHAI plans to come out with bids for monetisation of 10 out of 75 public-funded national highway projects in the first phase. The move follows the government’s decision in August last year authorising the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to monetise public-funded highway projects in the country. “Bids are likely to be out by April inviting tenders for monetisation of at least 10 projects on toll operate transfer (TOT),” a senior NHAI official told PTI. The official said 10 such projects out of a basket of 75 have been identified for monetisation and several investors, including Canadian Pension Fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Fund and those from the US, Europe and Singapore, have shown keen interest in buying them. “Investors are keen on our projects and we are going to bid out the same,” the official said. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has earlier told PTI that monetisation of public-funded highway projects could result in funds in the range of Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh crore initially. Ever since the government’s nod for monetisation, NHAI has been conducting traffic studies related to such projects, the revenue streams available and their overall viability. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on August 3 last year had authorised NHAI to monetise the public-funded highway projects for mobilising funds. Close to 75 operational NH projects completed under public funding have been preliminarily identified for potential monetisation using the toll operate transfer (TOT) Model. The corpus generated from proceeds of such project monetisation could be utilised by the government to meet its fund requirements regarding future development and operation and maintenance of highways in the country and could address development of highways in unviable geographies. Market feedback indicates that certain institutional investors from outside the country have long-term investment appetite and are keen to participate in operational highway projects with stable toll revenue outlook. These investors generally hesitate from taking construction risk, but are willing to look at de-risked Brownfield road assets, the government has earlier said. Jesper Fast Womens Jersey
NHAI seeks early High Court order to open bids for NH-24 widening
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has approached the Delhi high court for its early order on a petition, which has held up awarding of work to widen a crucial portion of NH-24, the main highway connecting Delhi with Uttar Pradesh. Delhi HC had held the final hearing in December on the petition filed by a road developer, who was disqualified by NHAI during the bidding process for the stretch between Delhi Border and Dasna. But the court has reserved the order. The 19.3 km stretch is the most congested and passes through residential and commercial areas such as Indirapuram and sector-62, Noida. To realize the ambitious widening of road from the Nizamuddin Bridge to Hapur, NHAI has divided the entire stretch into three sections for faster execution. While Nizamuddin Bridge to Dasna stretch will be made 14-lane, Dasna to Hapur stretch will be converted into six-lane. While the works on Nizamuddin Bridge to Delhi Border and Dasna to Hapur have already started, the remaining portion – Delhi Border to Dasna stretch is yet to be awarded. It has been delayed several times in the past 13 months because of lukewarm response from the bidders. Melvin Ingram Authentic Jersey
Govt weighs whether to auction or award road projects to ADIA
The government is contemplating whether to award operational highway projects to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in a government-to-government (G2G) deal or to auction them. The ministry of road transport and highways wants to auction the road projects identified under the Toll Operate Transfer (TOT) model, aimed to monetize India’s public funded national highways. Under the TOT model, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to lease as many as 75 national highway projects, which are operational and have been generating toll revenues for at least two years. “The road ministry along with NHAI have already given their comments for a concessionaire agreement,” said a government official, requesting anonymity. ADIA is the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. G2G deals are struck to reduce the prolonged transaction process, a case in point being India’s decision to buy Rafale fighter jets off-the-shelf from French manufacturer Dassault Aviation SA. “ADIA is very keen on a G2G deal for TOT projects. As per the negotiations, ADIA may get the project but the agreement that is to be signed will be a critical thing. Tomorrow, for example, if the road is to be augmented from four-lane to six-lane who will do it, who will bear the expenses, what will be ADIA’s rights and obligations? They agree to do maintenance but in case of major repairs who will bear the expenses? All these things need to be sorted out before going ahead with any such G2G deals,” the official added. Under the TOT model, the right of collection of user fee or toll in respect of selected operational NH stretches constructed through public funding is proposed to be assigned for a specific time period to developers and investors against upfront payment of a lump-sum amount to the government. Further, during the tenure of the contract, the operation and maintenance responsibility would remain with the assigned developer. Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport and highways, favours the auction route. “Such an interest was expressed but we would prefer a tendering process to keep transparency,” Gadkari said, declining to elaborate further. The Economic Times in February last year reported about ADIA expressing interest in taking up 50 highway projects on TOT basis. “ADIA wants the projects to be awarded under a G2G deal on a negotiated basis,” said a government official aware of the development, requesting anonymity. This comes in the backdrop of the government stepping up its engagement with the energy-rich nation. India hosted Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as the chief guest at its 68th Republic Day annual parade. India and the United Arab Emirates signed as many as 14 bilateral agreements to deepen economic and strategic cooperation. “Awarding projects through the negotiated route is an option provided it follows the principle of transparency and the route is used to discover the right price. Also, G2G negotiations are qualitatively on a better footing,” said Vishwas Udgirkar, partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP. While an ADIA spokesperson declined to comment, queries emailed to India’s ministries of roads and surface transport, external affairs and NHAI on 27 January remained unanswered. ADIA and other investors such as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan had earlier evinced interest in brownfield road assets. In 2015, the UAE agreed to invest as much as $75 billion in infrastructure projects in the country during a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August. However, the pact aiming to put together the administrative structure for the management of funds from the ADIA and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund is yet to materialize. Jon Weeks Jersey
Govt’s push for highway projects likely to benefit road developers
Several road builders including Sadbhav Infrastructure Project Ltd, PNC Infratech Ltd, Ashoka Buildcon Ltd, and NCC Ltd are expected to benefit from the increased budgetary allocation to India’s national highways, analysts and companies said. The government in its Union budget on 1 February announced an allocation of Rs64,900 crore for the construction of national highways for fiscal year 2017-18, up from about Rs58,000 crore for FY 2016-17; and maintained allocation to the roads sector under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) at Rs27,000 crore. Road developer Ashoka Buildcon is expecting its order book to rise to Rs8,000 crore in fiscal year 2018 from Rs5,000 crore in the current fiscal and expects execution to rise by 25-30% year-on-year, managing director Satish Parakh said. “The allocation for national highways will likely be used very efficiently by the ministry. Execution is expected to pick up pace this year as projects will be under the new land acquisition act,” Parakh said. Hyderabad-based NCC Ltd, too, expects an increase in the number of awards in the new fiscal. “For NCC, roads remain a major component of our business, but we will bid very carefully on the basis of fundamentals without sacrificing the margins. The pace of order allocation is likely to improve further based on the Union budget,” said Y.D. Murthy, executive vice-president of finance, NCC. Higher allocation towards roads and highways will be a positive for road engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) firms such as KNR Constructions Ltd, Sadbhav, IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd and J Kumar Infraprojects, according to Angel Broking’s post-budget report. The allocation will be a positive for road developers and EPC contractors as it would translate to higher road awarding and construction, IIFL Wealth Management said in its report on 2 February. “The pace of construction of PMGSY roads has accelerated to reach 133km roads per day in 2016-17, as against an average of 73km during the period 2011-2014 and a further outlay of Rs27,000 crore will boost the rural road construction project of the government,” brokerage firm KR Choksey said in a post-budget report. The Modi-led government’s thrust on speeding up construction of highways means that these companies stand to win increased business. In the past year, the government has also been pushing for the hybrid annuity model, where it will share 40% of the project cost and allocate funds to the developer to start work. Owing to highly leveraged balance sheets in the sector, only a handful of developers such as IRB Infrastructure, Sadbhav Infrastructure and IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd continue to bid for projects under the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model.Several other large companies such as Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) prefer projects under the government-funded EPC model. In the BOT model, the developer builds the project with its own money, operates it for a specified period and transfers it to the government. “While there is increase in budget allocation for roads and highways sector by 12% for FY 2017-18, that is much below the average annual increase of around 33% during the last three years… Less increase in allocation for national highways would mean that private sector investment under PPP (public private partnership) would be an important source of finance,” according to Vikash Kumar Sharda, director of capital projects and infrastructure at PwC. Jake DeBrusk Womens Jersey
Cab, auto-rickshaw drivers on strike meet Gadkari, demand government-run app
Striking taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers on Tuesday met Union minister for road transport Nitin Gadkari and demanded a government-run cab-hailing app on the lines of Ola and Uber. A delegation representing taxi and autorickshaw drivers told Gadkari their problems and urged him to get a mobile application developed to end the monopoly of private cab services. They alleged that app-based taxi services pay very less amount to the drivers. “The minister has promised us his support and expressed his desire to work for the benefit of the drivers… Tomorrow we will meet the senior officials of the ministry to discuss it in detail,” Delhi Taxi Tourist Transporters Association (DTTTA) president Sanjay Samra said. In their memorandum to the minister, the drivers alleged Ola and Uber were offering low fares and asked Gadkari to discontinue Ola and Uber cab services in the country. “They announced that the drivers will get Rs 6 per kilometre and asked for 25% in commission from the drivers. At this rate many Ola and Uber drivers are unable to earn enough to tend to daily needs,” Samrat added. The drivers launched a strike on February 10, much to the pains of the commuters who rely of app-based taxi services. Dion Phaneuf Authentic Jersey