Road contractors relieved from developing wayside amenities
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has scrapped the requirement for developing wayside amenities along new highways and expressways by road contractors and concessionaires. Instead, NHAI will seek separate bids from companies for developing such amenities.
The step is aimed at attracting global expertise for creating wayside amenities (WSAs) in the country with a stronger focus on design and product innovations to boost return on investment while scaling up the experience of highway users.
Under the existing provision, a highway contractor or concessionaire is responsible for developing WSAs, placing an additional responsibility on contractors to build, run and maintain such facilities.
In a circular dated June 11, NHAI has issued guidelines for descoping of construction of wayside amenities from the scope of road contractor. It outlined the methodology for withdrawal of construction work of wayside amenities in various modes of civil works under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) or hybrid annuity mode (HAM) and build-operate-transfer (BOT) mode. «Segregating the works of road construction and wayside amenities will help in getting a great focus for the latter. This can also lead to greater customisation and could garner interest from specialised players such as oil marketing companies and hospitality sector players,» said Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, senior director and global head, consulting at Crisil Market Intelligence and Analytics.
The ministry of road transport and highways has
