Betting on BoT
Worsening NHAI finances are forcing the government to go back to the build-operate-transfer model for road projects
Photograph by Shekhar Gosh
On February 10, the National Highways Authority of India s (NHAI s) project team eagerly awaited opening of bids for two projects - six-laning of the 67.75-kilometre Panagarh-Palsit and 63.8-kilometre Palsit-Dankuni stretches - in West Bengal. The excitement vanished soon after, because instead of bids, all they got were bid-related queries from developers. NHAI extended the bid submission deadline by two weeks. The story was no different and the deadline was postponed yet again.
However, when bids were opened yet again in early March, it was a jackpot for both NHAI and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH). Not only were there bids, private highway developers did not demand viability gap funding (VGF is a capital grant given by the government to a developer to bridge the viability gap in a highway project). I