[1]The government is banking on the private sector for the bulk of the $60 billion investment needed for its ambitious five-year programme to fill the “road deficit”, the Union highways minister, Mr Kamal Nath, said on Thursday.
“We require $60 billion, out of which $40 billion would come from the private sector,” he said.
Mr Nath, who had recently visited the US, Japan and Malaysia, said global players are expected to pump in $10 billion for his much talked-about 20 km-a-day road building projects.
Mr Nath saw no difficulty in raising resources for the highways, almost two-thirds of which would be toll-based, raking in Rs 10,000 crore annually for the investors. The government is also in talks with multilateral agencies for soft-funding the key infrastructure projects.
Commercial borrowings are also being used by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), he said. “Resources are there from NHAI borrowings, the World Bank and the ADB. Sixty per cent of the roads are built under BOT,” Mr Nath said, adding that foreign investors, particularly in the construction sector, are showing interest.
Mr Nath had announced a target of adding 35,000 km of highways under UPA-II’s regime. The NHAI has estimated its annual borrowings from the domestic and the international market at up to Rs 20,000 crore for the next 15 years.
The ministry expects that the foreign players would become senior partners in the construction projects in the coming years. — PTI
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