85% of Road Projects to be Completed by March 2023

Around 85 per cent of road projects are likely to be completed by the end of this fiscal, as the steps taken by the government to ensure faster clearances like monitoring and quicker resolution of issues have started showing results, Road Transport and Highways secretary Anurag Jain said. Jain said, the Road ministry is getting environment and forest clearance quickly and monitoring mechanisms of delayed projects have been improved. “We took up completion of projects on time as a challenge, and in cases where the project is already delayed, a revised schedule was taken as the target.

I have a feeling that by the end of this financial year (March), we will complete about 85 per cent of projects on time,” he said. Jain further noted that “PRAGATI meeting by the Prime Minister, monitoring by Cabinet Secretariat, creation of Integrated Project Monitoring portal, use of PM Gati Shakti in planning have considerably improved the pace of implementation of the projects during the whole life cycle of the projects.

” According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) report, which monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above, the road transport and highways sector has the maximum number of delayed projects. He also said that the ministry of road transport and highways is in conversations with MoSPI to standardize the definition of ‘delayed projects’.

On the Road ministry’s asset monetisation plan, Jain said state-owned National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) road monetisation pace has not slowed down and The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) will also achieve its asset monetisation target. He stated: “We have identified road projects that will be monetized under the Toll Operation Transfer (TOT) model and the Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) model. You will see very Many activities take place this year.”

An InvIT is an instrument modeled after the mutual fund model, designed to pool investor money and invest it in assets that will provide cash flow over a period of time. MoRTH is striving to achieve a target of over Rs 40,000 crore through various asset monetization methods and by mobilizing resources through a special purpose vehicle this financial year.

Replying to a question on the national vehicle scrappage policy, Jain said there are challenges but the policy has started receiving positive response from states and other stakeholders. “Around 36 vehicle scrapping centers have been established in 13 states. Another 34 centers are under construction, while another 27 centers are in the approval stage,” he said. He noted that the pace of setting up automated testing centers needs to be accelerated.

“There are some states where there are gaps, which is why we are looking at those states as well,” he said, adding that more efforts need to be made on automated testing stations that have been Registration of means of transport. The vehicle scrapping policy was first introduced in August 2021 and focuses on phasing out old and unfit vehicles to reduce car pollution. This policy aims to cancel the registration of passenger vehicles over 20 years old and commercial vehicles over 15 years old.

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