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Infrastructure task force identifies 20 road projects, to meet again on Nov 28

The first meeting of the task force on infrastructure today decided that work on widening of the roads will start at 20 places simultaneously in this financial year.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jaswant Singh and secretary to prime minister, N K Singh, took part in the meeting in New Delhi.

They said a committee has been appointed which includes Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar, N K Singh and Deepak Parekh, chairman of the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation to finance these 20 projects.

The task force has been set up by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee last month to kickstart airport and road projects in the country.

Jaswant Singh said the task force considered the issue of highway expansion, setting up of five international airports and other infrastructure-related issues. He said a decision would be taken on these issues at the next meeting of the task force which would meet on November 28.

N K Singh said based on the terms of reference of the task force, three issues were taken up for discussion with regard to the road sector for commencing the construction simultaneously.

The task force will select the bidders.

A tentative list of 40 places from where the construction has to start has been drawn up by the ministry of surface transport. From this list, 20 places from where the work will start will be prioritised, he added.

Singh said the task force consisting of Kelkar and Parekh will consider innovative means of financing to ensure that there will be no paucity of funds in taking up these projects.

The third issue related to setting up of five international airports. An inter-ministerial committee is looking into the locations of these airports and will make suggestions in this regard.

It will also look at upgrading the existing airports. The committee will submit its recommendations in the next fortnight. The committee consists of Civil Aviation Secretary P V Jaikrishnan and Airports Authority of India Chairman D V Gupta.

The task force on infrastructure comprises Surface Transport Minister M Thambidurai, Civil Aviation Minister Anant Kumar, Parekh and N K Singh.

The committee, headed by Jaswant Singh, is to go into the benchmarks to be followed for selection of location, size, technical standards and financing options for highway and airport projects.

The proposed 7,000-km-long national highway linking Silchar to Saurashtra and Kashmir to Kanyakumari as well as four-laning of the national highways are estimated to cost Rs 280 billion. There are issues connected with the involvement of the private sector in construction of roads like acquisition of land.

The private sector is likely to be involved in a big way in setting up surface transport projects as central and state governments are unlikely to find resources to fund these projects.

UNI

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