As against the target for awarding works for a total length of 8,800 kilometer during 2012-13, it has been possible to award projects for a length of 705 kilometer up to October, 2012. Some projects have not received good response from bidders.
Apart from general slowdown of economy, viability of some of the projects, sectoral lending caps of the banks, limitations of the concessionaires like availability of equity and other resources to execute the projects appear to be the main factors for poor response.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to take up certain road development projects, which are not viable on Build Operate Transfer mode, on Engineering, Procurement & Construction through 100% Government funding.
So far, 32 National Highway stretches have tentatively been identified for taking up on EPC mode.
