The Hindu : Golden Quadrilateral project may miss deadline

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

Business

Business

Golden Quadrilateral project may miss deadline

MUMBAI JAN. 6. The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) road project is likely to miss the completion target of December 2004 by an year as over 40 per cent of the contracts were awarded after July 2001, according to the CRIS-INFAC report.

The usual timeframe for project completion was 30 months and even if early completion in certain cases was factored in, the GQ project may still be delayed by a year from the initial schedule, CRIS-INFAC, a subsidiary of CRISIL, said in its report on roads and highways here today.

Similarly, the north-south and east-west corridors highway project, for which the funding plan is yet to be approved by the Union Cabinet Committee, could also be delayed beyond its scheduled completion date of 2007, the CRIS-INFAC said.

The National Highway Authority of India is implementing the project plans efficiently and "given the magnitude of the task, delays to a certain extent are reasonable,'' the report said, adding its ability to service debt and contractual obligation for payment to contractors and annuity is comfortable.

The progress of rural road development project is slow and greater focus is needed to increase the momentum, it said. The road projects are likely to the face shortage of funds for meeting the targets set for the current five year Plan (2002-07), it said.

"There is a need to encourage greater private sector participation and develop an active secondary market by securitising the receivables to ensure broad based participation,'' the report added. — PTI

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