The Hindu : National : French participation sought in highway projects

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

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National

French participation sought in highway projects

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: : The Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, T. R. Baalu, on Monday asked French companies to participate in India's highway building programmes.

"India has the second largest road network in the world. The Government of India is implementing a mega project, namely the National Highways Development Project, for upgrading and improving around 14,000 km of the existing arterial National Highway network to four-lane facility at an estimated cost of about Rs.64, 500 crore (about Euro 11.5 billion)," he said.

He was addressing the `Indo-French Seminar on Roads', attended by the French delegation led by Gilles de Robien, French Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Spatial Planning, Tourism and the Sea.

Elaborating on the new initiatives, Mr. Baalu said: "The Government is taking steps to further develop and modernise the National Highway network in the country and plans to invest approximately Rs.1, 72,000 crore (about Euro 20 billion) in the coming seven years."

These include 4/6-laning of 10,000 km of high traffic density National Highway corridors, mainly through public-private partnership on `Build-Operate-Transfer' basis under NHDP Phase-III, upgradation and strengthening of about 20,000 km of existing single/intermediate/two-lane National Highway stretches to two-lanes with paved shoulders through private sector participation on BOT basis under NHDP Phase-IV. Similarly, 6-laning of 5,000 km of National Highways would be undertaken under NHDP Phase-V.

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