News Brief
Rs 9,599 Crore Approved For Maintenance Of Over 24,000 Km Of National Highways In 2024-25: Gadkari
A national highway. (Representational Image).
The government has approved for road maintenance works worth over Rs 9,500 crore in the financial year 2024-25.
This allocation covers a total length of 24,002 km across two major maintenance contract types: Short Term Maintenance Contracts (STMC) and Performance-Based Maintenance Contracts (PBMC).
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the Government has prioritised the maintenance of existing National Highway (NH) network and among other things evolved a mechanism to ensure Maintenance and Repair (M&R) of all NHs sections through accountable maintenance agency.
The minister said that NHs projects are executed on mainly three modes i.e. (i) Build Operate and Transfer (BOT), (ii) Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) and (iii) Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC).
Concession period for projects including maintenance on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) is 15 to 20 years and on Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) is generally 15 years. Concessionaire is responsible for maintenance of the respective NHs stretches within the concession period of the project.
Only in case of EPC projects, Defect Liability period (DLP) is five years for the bituminous pavement works and ten years for concrete pavement works.
Concession period for Projects on Operate, Maintain and Transfer (OMT) is generally 9 years.
"For all remaining sections of NHs stretches where DLP period has ended or is not under any concession period of BOT/HAM/TOT/InvIT project, Government has taken a policy decision to undertake maintenance works through Performance Based Maintenance Contract (PBMC) or Short Term Maintenance Contract (STMC)," the minister said.
He added that while STMC works are generally undertaken for a contract period of 1-2 year, PBMC works are undertaken for a contract period of about 5-7 years.
"During the current Financial Year 2024-25, Government has approved STMC works in 17,884 km length costing Rs 2,842 Crore and PBMC works in 6,118 km length costing Rs 6,757 Crore," Gadkari said.
