Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Private sector to be involved in highways care

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI April 29. In a major policy change, the Tamil Nadu Government has decided to involve the private sector in an integrated improvement-cum-maintenance contract for State Highways. At present, maintenance of the State Highways is being done departmentally. Under the new proposal, all State Highways falling within each district would be made a package and entrusted to successful bidders for improvement-cum-maintenance for three years, the Minister for Public Works, O. Paneerselvam, told the Assembly today.

Moving the demands for grants to the Highways department, he said the funding for the programme would be sourced from the HUDCO/LIC based on objective, technical criteria and financial norms. A separate road fund board would be formed to deploy the portion of the infrastructure surcharge for the road sector. The Construction Industry Development Board, Malaysia, had evinced an interest in executing certain bridge works on the BOT concept.

The new road policy being formulated would include not only engineering and economic aspects but also environmental and social issues of highway construction and management. It would aim to leverage market resources through public-private participation, and upgrade road construction through state-of-the-art technology and professional management of highways assets and resources.

The Government had granted in-principle approval to recommendations for reforms on organisation and management, core process, information system, financial mechanism and regulatory context made in the institutional development study.

To ensure quick movement of traffic, the department would consider forming lay-bys to establish integrated checkposts on important State roads.

To prevent frequent road cutting by service providing organisations, it was planned to offer ducting facilities along multilaned roads. These would be made available to the service providers such as the Electricity Board, telephones and water supply on a nominal rent, he said.

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