5th India Roads Conference 2012

January 11, 2012

Among the few that performed well in infrastructure last year is the roads sector. Inclusive growth will remain the underlying theme for the 12^th Five Year Plan. With a 4 per cent growth aimed in agriculture growth, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has announced that “In the 12th Plan (2012-17), we will pay special attention to the remote areas of our country and to rural areas. Connecting such areas by rail and road will get the top-most priority.”

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the National Rural Roads Development Agency(NRRDA) and the state road development corporations will be busy next year. A major part—about 20,000 km—of the National Highways Development Programme’s(NHDP) Phase IV will be bid out in 2012. On another front, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), targeted at covering rural habitations with motorable roads, will see a large augmentation in budgetary allocation in the 12^th Plan, and will be more aggressive. Many states have shown aggression in connecting their states, cities, towns and villages better next year.

While more projects likely to be offered next year on wards on an EPC model, experts forecast that many rural road projects may be awarded through PPP by bundling in packages: New pilot schemes including the “modified EPC basis” will be on the anvil.

How will our country achieve the objective that the Prime Minister has set? Practitioners in the roads and related industries will have a critical role to play, starting with a platform such as this conference to understand, analyse, discuss and recommend ways forward.

The 5^th India Roads Conference 2012 is scheduled to happen on 15^th& 16^th February at , New Delhi.

Theme: Connecting Rural with Urban India for Inclusive Growth.

Date & Venue of 5th India Road Conference 2012

Date: February 15-6 ,2012
Venue : The Taj Mahal Hotel , New Delhi

Contact Details:

For delegate registration and general enquires –

Saba Fulkar- [email protected] or +91 810 866 3000

For speaking opportunities –

Pooja Jaiswal- [email protected] or +91 2419 3092

For Sponsorship opportunities –

Shweta Bandivadekar- [email protected] or 0810 860 3000

www.asappconferences.com/roads

Conference Chair: Day 1

Dr. J. N Singh, Member(Finance), National Highways Authority of India
Conference Chair : Day 2

Dr. Arvind Mayaram, Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser, Ministry of Rural Development , Government of India

The conference will also describe new initiatives and methods in Road sector, debate on relevant questions, and make recommendations. Some of them are:

l Looking forward to the new Five Year Plan: Issues and ways forward

l Premium bids in highways

l Rural connectivity plan analysis

l Aiming for quality construction

l Project management and monitoring processes in roads

l Financing highways and rural roads

l Viability of rural roads

l Tendering processes

l Modified EPC and other new modes of delivery

l Connectivity as enabler of cold chain and agricultural warehousing industries

l Domestic and international case studies in roads sector

l Recommendations and ways forward

Key Takeaways

l What are the lessons the policymakers have learnt from the 11th Plan in infrastructure, and how will they translate into roads sector?

l How much of the outlay can and should attract private investment?

l How will negative VGF (premium) highways fare next year?

l Should more expressways figure in future plans?

l Will “Modified EPC”, which operates like PPP, work better?

l What is the government planning to augment private participation in rural roads?

l Will rural roads projects achieve scale to attract competition from bigger players who can assure quality?

l How can the tendering process for awarding rural road projects be improved, especially as the segment is starting to attract bigger, national players?

l In what ways will enhanced connectivity multiply investments in cold chains and other rural segments?

Format

Our conference is headed by a Conference Chair, an eminent personality connected with the policymaking sphere relating to the industry. The Chair, along with Session Chairs, leads and summarizes the conference’s key points, and makes recommendations to policymakers and the industry.
ASAPP Conferences believes that interactivity at conferences results in better spread of understanding ground issues as well as in involving our delegates in discussions in regards to operations, technology and policy. Such interactivity also helps in evolving critical issues and taking them further in the form of recommendations. Consequently, the conference is replete with panel discussions, often involving delegate participation, and exhaustive Q&A sessions.
A typical session opens with the Session Chair’s lengthy introduction to the session’s main subject. This is followed by related addresses by the panelists in that session, a panel discussion, and Q&A. The session concludes with a comprehensive summary by the Session Chair
Our typical conference includes two coffee breaks and a lunch break during the day, allowing plenty of time for business and professional networking opportunities among attendees.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Expo & Events, Road

‘No-way’ state mulls highway tax – Govt planning to levy user charges with private role in collection and maintenance

January 11, 2012

Calcutta, Jan. 4: The Mamata Banerjee government is working on a plan to levy user charges on vehicles plying on the 14 state highways in Bengal.

If the initiative is allowed to proceed unhindered, it will be a departure for a government that has been allergic to levying or increasing user charges and the first instance of decisive action from within to fight the financial crisis.

The success of the project will depend on a larger issue that is vexing Bengal: industrialisation. The more the industrial traffic, the more the state stands to earn as toll tax.

As the first step, the government is clearing the decks to set up a company under the public works department to look after all the 14 state highways, which in turn will get private players to maintain the roads.

“The company will invite private parties to maintain the roads under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. They will be allowed to charge toll tax to recover their investments,” said A.R. Bardhan, the state PWD secretary.

At present, the PWD spends around Rs 200 crore a year on all the 14 state highways. The state government doesn’t collect any toll tax from these highways.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), however, follows the private-agency model to maintain national highways across the country. For example, the NHAI has engaged three private agencies to maintain NH2 between Howrah and Asansol. The three agencies levy toll tax at three points on the stretch — at Dankuni, Palsit and Asansol.

Senior officials at Writers’ Buildings told The Telegraph that the highway decision had been taken to ease some of the financial burden on the state government.

“The PWD spends one-third of its budgetary allocation, which comes to around Rs 200 crore, on maintaining the state highways. The pathetic state of the roads suggests that the department is facing trouble in maintaining the roads because of paucity of funds,” an official said.

As many of these highways will require re-laying, which calls for fresh investments, the government, according to the official, is banking on private players.

States like Maharashtra are also following a similar model for better maintenance and expansion of the road infrastructure.

“For example, Maharashtra has already developed a state road development corporation through which private agencies can play a role. Private agencies maintain state highways and roads and construct bridges and culverts. They are allowed to collect toll tax to recover their investments,” said a PWD official.

He added that Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh had also brought in private players for road maintenance.

The move to collect user charge on state highways has come after months of refusal by the chief minister to tax water and raise power tariff.

“It is a good sign… If she can collect user charges for use of roads, then why not levy water tax or raise power tariff?” asked a city industrialist.

Estimates drawn up by the power department reveal that the combined losses of the power utilities in this financial year will be around Rs 2,400 crore.

“We see a ray of hope in the government’s decision on levying toll tax. If the chief minister allows us to raise power tariff, our losses will come down. The question is whether she will accept the economic logic of raising power tariff,” said a senior power department official.

According to the PWD proposal, the West Bengal State Construction Corporation Ltd — with the chief minister as the chairperson and the PWD secretary as the managing director — will be set up to look after the maintenance of all the state highways.

“The company will be allowed to take independent decisions. If its board of directors approves a decision, it will not require approval from the finance department. It will expedite the projects,” Bardhan said.

PWD officials said it had been decided that a formula would be drawn up along the lines of that of NHAI to determine toll tax rates.

“We are expecting the chief minister to clear the file as soon as possible as it has been drawn up after consulting her. We will start the process of setting up the company and inviting private players very soon,” said a PWD official.

The proposal may look fetching on paper, but implementing it will mean persuading Bengal to kick some of its habits.

“The state has to ensure proper security for the agencies that will collect toll tax. The NHAI had engaged a couple of agencies for maintenance of NH31 but when the agencies tried to collect the tax in North Dinajpur, local people chased them away and dismantled the toll tax plaza,” said a PWD official.

Infrastructure analysts pointed out that drawing private players might not be easy as the companies conduct viability studies before committing investment. “It has been observed that private companies lap up high-demand roads. Unless industrial activities go up in Bengal, getting private players will be difficult,” said an infrastructure finance analyst.

PWD officials said that of the 14 state highways, only five to six have significant industrial traffic, largely driven by natural factors such as coal, stone quarries and clay.

Source: telegraphindia.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under BOT, Highway, PWD

Depts lock horns over Ghaziabad FoBs

January 11, 2012

The public works department (PWD NH division) and Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) are at loggerheads over the construction of two foot-over bridges (FoBs). While the PWD NH division has threatened to stop the construction of FoBs at high-pedestrian movement points near Vasundhara
and Vaishali over the NH-58e stretch, the latter claims to have initiated work.

The corporation has started the construction of two 105-feet-long FoBs, which will connect Sahibabad to Vasundhara and Dabur Crossing to Vaishali on NH-58e stretch, on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The FOBs, to be built at Rs 4 crore, are expected to be completed in two months.

However, PWD NH division officials maintain that no such work can be undertaken on BOT basis without a prior permission from the ministry of road transport and highways.

“We can’t allow them to proceed with the BOT work and put up posters on FoBs. Their structural safety should be certified,” said Ravi Dutt Kumar, executive engineer, PWD (NH division).

The department officials have even forwarded a complaint to the Indirapuram police, asking them to lodge an FIR against the agency carrying out the construction activity.

On the other hand, GMC officials claim that the PWD had been apprised about the construction in August 2010 and the civic body would proceed with the work at any cost.

“The FoBs fall under our jurisdiction. The construction is being carried out in larger public interest as the two points are congested and pose a threat to pedestrians. The Municipal Corporation Act allows us to undertake such work,” said AK Singh, executive engineer, GMC.

It is not the first time that such construction is being carried out on highway stretches passing through the city.

The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) had recently carried out the widening of GT Road from Mohan Nagar to Dilshad Garden border. It has also completed the first phase of widening six to eight lanes from Dabur Crossing to Mohan Nagar.

Further, the work of widening six to eight lanes of GT Road from Mohan Nagar to new bus stand is on. GDA is also undertaking the construction of third bridge over Hindon river near GT Road. Sources said no prior permission had been obtained for the previous projects.

Source: hindustantimes.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under BOT, PWD

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