The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to award projects worth around ₹ 2.25 lakh crore in the current fiscal. The authority awarded 141 projects (4,788 km) worth ₹ 1.71 lakh crore in 2020-21. The share of engineering procurement and construction (EPC) in the awards last fiscal was 50% followed by hybrid annuity model (HAM) at 49%. Only two projects were awarded through the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model. NHAI sources said project awards in the current fiscal could be close to 5,000 km and HAM is expected to have the largest share of awards followed by EPC. BOT is likely to gain momentum to constitute between 5-10% of the award basket. Project awards through the BOT route drew a blank in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. “Funds are not a constraint for project awards. We will be exceeding our last year’s achievement in the current fiscal,” NHAI chairman Dr S.S. Sandhu said.
