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NHAI officials, contractor booked over damaged flyover

NHAI officials, contractor booked over damaged flyover

NHAI officials, contractor booked over damaged flyoverGurugram : The contractor of Pink City Expressway Pvt Ltd and some officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have been booked over the crash of a portion of the Rampura flyover on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, a police officer said.

The contractor of Pink City Expressway Pvt Ltd and officials of the NHAI were on December 19 booked in connection with the accident.

A six square feet portion of the flyover – nearly 46 km from Delhi – fell off on December 17 and an FIR was lodged on December 19 under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Those booked include officials of Pink City Expressway Pvt Ltd (PCEPL), the company constructing the 225-km Expressway.

The case was registered on the complaint of a group of Right to Information (RTI) activists including Ramesh Yadav, Baldev Mehra, Omprakash Kataria and others.

Meanwhile, officials of the NHAI and police on Saturday again failed to collect the building material samples of the fallen portion of the Rampura flyover. They had failed to collect them on December 24 as well.

The NHAI officials took the samples on Saturday in the presence of one of the complainants, Ramesh Yadav, but it was inadequate.

“Samples could not be collected properly as the steel rods used in building the flyover became a hurdle in complete sample collection,” Charan Singh, the Investigation Officer, told IANS.

Singh said that samples will be collected again and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Haryana’s Madhuban for quality testing.

Earlier, in 2012, the concessionaire of the Gurugram-Jaipur highway was booked when a sizeable portion of the road near the same Rampura-Naurangpur stretch got washed away. Later, he was let off after paying a fine of only Rs 450.

(Pradeep Singh can be contacted at pradeepsinghrao@gmail.com)

—IANS

A tale of two privatisations

A tale of two privatisations

Private, PublicBy Taponeel Mukherjee,

Charles Dickens’ famous line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” in his novel “A Tale of Two Cities” aptly describes the recent privatisation scenario in India.

While the bid from Macquarie to acquire a bundle of nine highways from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) exceeded NHAI’s expectations by 50 percent, the Air India privatisation effort, in sharp contrast, failed to attract even a single bidder. Both experiences, with varying degrees of complexity, teach us valuable lessons.

Investors with capital to allocate are looking at assets in India — one of the fastest-growing economies in the world — with an eye on the growth in the coming decades. It is important to realise that investors, in general, are primarily looking for assets with similar qualities to what the bundle of highways offered, namely (1) Cash-flow profile clarity (2) Positive cash-flow asset (3) Consumption growth story to back the asset (4) Total management control.

It is essential first to understand the nature of investors who would be interested in a privatisation or asset monetisation in India. There are primarily four types of investors that we must look at (1) Indian corporations (2) Foreign institutional investors such as pension, sovereign and insurance funds (3) Private equity firms (4) Trade buyers.

Of these, the Indian corporates will have quite a few significant players with strategic interests in the privatisation, but by and large, given their stressed balance sheets, their involvement will be limited. If anything, cash-flow clarity will be an absolute essential for them to invest in privatisation.

Large pension, sovereign and insurance funds that have started to invest in Indian assets especially over the last few years would be interested in the asset monetisation process. Such funds look for infrastructure assets with positive cash-flow profiles. Because, in general, they have long-dated liabilities, they focus on assets that can utilise long-dated debt financing to yield stable positive cash-flows. Clarity around cash-flow profiles and positive cash-flow assets will generally be the investments such funds find attractive.

The third type of investor is the private equity funds operating in India. A recent report by Institutional Investor puts the total un-invested capital, or “dry powder”, held by such funds at above $1 trillion. Money is, thus, not the issue. For them, privatisation can be an attractive proposition if they find assets where they can add value beyond just providing capital and have control of the business.

Trade buyers are the fourth type, looking at acquisitions that can help their companies expand into new markets. Indian assets are an attractive proposition for such buyers also, with the same caveats of attractive cash-flow profile and complete management control.

In an Indian privatisation context, assets that will be attractive to potential bidders, at least initially, will have to meet the conditions mentioned earlier. The NHAI highway bundle met the requirements, and the Air India privatisation wasn’t quite there.

For privatisation to pick up momentum, it is essential to start with “less complex” assets. When investors see a consistent flow of privatisations and the Indian public sees a transparent process delivering value, the more complex privatisations are a little easier to execute. Also, there might be the case that certain loss-making companies which the government does not consider to be of vital importance might need strategic divestment. For such companies, there is merit in looking at selling attractive assets to generate capital with which to create new infrastructure.

Three facts must be borne in mind as India moves ahead with divestments. Firstly, they are crucial to finance the infrastructure gap — predicted to be $526 billion by 2040 (according to the Economic Survey 2017-2018). Asset monetisation through privatisation will play a substantial role in financing the deficit.

Secondly, it is important that critics of privatisation are engaged with, to allay their fears around public assets being sold off cheap. The government must find the right balance between creating an efficient privatisation mechanism that is attractive to private investors and removing public apprehension revolving around privatisation. A transparent process will go a long way in winning over critics.

Thirdly, we must realise that India’s need to finance the infrastructure gap is no more than the need for global investors to invest in attractive opportunities. Such a situation is one that makes a market in economics. An efficient and well-structured privatisation process will help find the clearing price much more efficiently.

(Taponeel Mukherjee heads Development Tracks, an infrastructure advisory firm. Views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at taponeel.mukherjee@development-tracks.com or @Taponeel on Twitter)

—IANS

NHAI making all out efforts to speed up highway construction

NHAI making all out efforts to speed up highway construction

NHAINew Delhi : The government on Tuesday said it was making all out efforts to speed up awarding of projects and construction of highways, adding it had already invited bids for projects of 4,900 km length till November.

It added that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was likely to invite bids for another 3,500 km by December end, taking the total up to 8,400 km.

“Further projects for bidding during January-March next year will be identified around the fourth week of December,” the Road Transport and Highways Ministry said in a statement.

It said that projects costing Rs 22,100 crore and covering 1,170 km have already been awarded so far and bids for many other projects are under evaluation.

“In FY 2017-18, NHAI has completed 1,566 km length of the projects under implementation till November (5,060 km). The last five-year average constructed by NHAI is 2,175 km with 2,628 km constructed in FY 2016-17.

“This year NHAI is targeting to construct 3,500 km,” it said.

It added that work on 12 new projects covering 597 km has commenced while work on another 38 projects covering 1,969 km will start soon.

“NHAI is making all out efforts to achieve its target of awarding 10,000 km during 2017-18, as set by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. The authority is also gearing up to meet its target of completing Phase I of the recently approved ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’ within the next five years,” the statement said.

—IANS

NHAI to generate 50 crore man-days employment in four years

NHAI to generate 50 crore man-days employment in four years

National Highway Authority of IndiaNew Delhi : The National Highway Authority of India’s (NHAI) ongoing and targeted projects would generate employment of around 50 crore man-days over the next four years, an official statement said on Friday.

“This would be averaging to nearly 12.5 crore man-days yearly from 2018-2022. Of this, about one crore will be professional man-days, 3.5 crore skilled labour man-days and eight crore semi-skilled and un-skilled man days,” the Road, Transport and Highways Ministry statement said.

The NHAI currently has 282 projects having length of about 20,000 km under implementation across the country out of which 10,000 kms is targeted to be completed over next one to two years, it said.

“There are around 220 projects having length of about 31,000 km which are targeted to be awarded and completed in the next three to four years across all the states in the country under National Highways Development Project and Bharat Mala Schemes.

“Thus, NHAI plans to construct approximately 50,000 km highways in next four years,” it added.

“This will generate seasonal employment opportunities as successful and efficient execution of projects invariably requires qualified professionals, skilled and semi-skilled work force.”

—IANS