NHAI to develop 600 wayside amenities on PPP mode in five years

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to develop a grid of world-class wayside amenities along national highways and expressways at 600 locations in the next five years on public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

As per the plan, a total of about 3,000 hectares of land alongside both greenfield and existing alignments will be developed offering world-class retail, food court, restaurants, medical services, public conveniences, banquets, and recreational facilities for highway users. The sites will also have a dedicated retail area for local arts and crafts.

For the truck drivers, provisions will be made for dormitories for quality rest during the travel. The wayside amenities will also have helipads for emergency purposes.

“The government is studying the international guidelines on the development of highway amenities on every 40 to 60 kilometers. We have studied all trucking corridors as well as the expressways and the national highways on which the grid of wayside amenities will be developed,” a source close to the development told Business Today.

The source added that 376 world-class wayside amenities will come up alongside the national highways and expressways. “Additionally, in the Northern India, wayside amenities will be developed at 67 locations, while 40 will be developed in the Eastern India. 29 wayside amenities with international standards will come up in Western India while 45 will developed in the South,” he added.

The greenfield Delhi-Mumbai expressway, which is expected to reduce the travel distance between the national capital and the financial capital, will witness the development of 94 world-class amenities along its alignment. Delhi – Mumbai expressway is a 1,250 km, eight-lane greenfield expressway being developed at a cost of Rs 90,000 crore and is expected to be completed by January 2023.

Last month, the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry came out with a new policy on the development of wayside amenities on the national highways and expressways on the land belonging to NHAI or a private party on the alignment of a project.

The new policy mandates a grant of NHAI land to a private party for the development of the wayside amenities on the lease of up to thirty years. “The period of the lease shall not be more than 30 years for sites with no constructed asset, i.e. in cases where the wayside amenity will have to be completely developed by the private party/developer,” a notification issued by the ministry on the matter said.

“The period of the lease shall not be more than 15 years for sites where the authority has already undertaken construction of wayside amenity,” the notification said.

The land for the development of the wayside amenities on the national highways will be awarded on a competitive basis to the party quoting the highest annual revenue share amount. The bid may be accepted if the total annual realization to the authority — annual rental and estimated revenue share — is at least 5 percent of the land cost, according to the notification. The authority will not charge any fee from a private party owning land for permitting to construct wayside amenities.

source: https://www.businesstoday.in/