Will award 5 road projects by next year: Nath

The government on Tuesday said it will award five big-size road projects worth Rs 15,000 crore by March 2011.

"We would be awarding five mega road projects in the next 3-4 months," Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath told reporters here.

The estimated cost of each project is about Rs 3,000 crore.

"They'll be worth about Rs 15,000 crore," Nath added. He, however, did not provide any further details on the projects.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the entity engaged in the construction of these highways has invited bids for the 570-km project from Kishangarh near Jaipur to Ahmedabad via Udaipur. It would be the country's first mega road project.

Last year, Nath had announced NHAI would invite bids for nine mega road projects.

The government targets to construct 35,000 km of highways in five years under the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP).

This endeavour would require an estimated investment of about $60 billion (Rs 2.75 lakh crore), of which $40 billion (Rs 1.83 lakh crore) is expected to come from the private sector.