Govt may hand over construction, maintenance of state highways on PPP mode
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 17 Oct: The government has claimed that, in compliance with the orders of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, all roads in the state will be made pothole free. In this regard, Secretary, PWD, Dr Pankaj Pandey today claimed that 90 percent of the roads in the state have already been made pothole free and the rest will also be fixed in a day or two. Besides, this, Pandey also admitted that the government is mulling handing over construction and maintenance of certain state highways to private contractors in PPP mode.
Pandey stated that there has been a delay in making all roads pothole free because, this year, the monsoon lasted till the end of September unlike its usual farewell time of around 15 September. He also conceded that, in the hills, due to the strike by local contractors, the work by the PWD department was also delayed. It may be recalled that CM Dhami had directed the PWD and other related departments to make the roads pothole-free by 15 October.
Dr Pandey claimed that the Government is working on improving road connectivity in the state. In line with this, the Public Works Department (PWD) has decided to operate some of the main roads in the state on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Under this scheme, private contractors will not only construct the road but lso maintain these for a period of 25 years after the construction. This, he claimed, will relieve the government of the financial burden of building and maintaining the road. During the first phase, the PWD is mulling handing over the operation and maintenance of three roads in the state on PPP mode to begin with.
The PWD has identified three roads with the highest traffic pressure. These include a road from Bahadarabad to Bhagwanpur in Haridwar district. With the construction of this road, large commercial vehicles coming from Roshanabad will be able to easily pass through this highway to Bhagwanpur and go to UP, Punjab, and Haryana, reducing traffic pressure on the existing road from Bahadarabad to Bhagwanpur. Then, PWD is also mulling on construction of a road from Bajpur intersection to Ramnagar border via Kaladhungi in Udham Singh Nagar district in PPP Mode.
It has been indicated that, for construction of major roads in PPP mode, the government will acquire the land but later hand over the same to private contractors for construction and maintenance for 25 years.
The PWD Secretary shared that he had met Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, who suggested that the major roads of the state be operated on PPP mode. This would benefit the government by not having to invest money, as the company concerned will maintain the road. The PWD has so far identified four roads for this project, which are currently under study. Pandey however conceded that the final decision on this will be that of the Chief Minister and the PWD Minister.