New formula to show highway construction in better light

Lane-km to replace linear length method in line with international norms

The width of a standard lane in the US is 3.7 metres, and it varies between 2.75 and 3.5 metres in Germany. According to Indian standards, the width of one lane is prescribed as 3.5 metres

The Union government on Tuesday announced a formula to calculate the length of highways built in a day in line with international norms.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said the daily road construction target would be calculated on the basis of the lane-kilometre formula from the current financial year, instead of linear length. “The world over, road construction is calculated based on this formula,” Gadkari said.

The ministry missed the highway construction target in the past three years. In 2015-16, daily road construction was 17 km as against the target of 41 km; 22 km a day in 2016-17 against a similar target; and 27 km a day in 2017-18 against the target of 40 km.

“The ministry has so far been calculating the construction of national highways in linear length, which means there is no difference between 1 km of two lanes with paved shoulders and 1 km of six lanes plus service roads,” an official statement said quoting Gadkari.

The width of a standard lane in the US is 3.7 metres, and it varies between 2.75 and 3.5 metres in Germany. According to Indian standards, the width of one lane is prescribed as 3.5 metres.

“The ministry proposes to adopt the international system of counting of construction of lane-km from the next financial year (2018-19),” the statement said. In 2017-18, the construction of national highways was calculated both in linear length and lane-km.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are yet to finalise the adoption of this formula.

In 2017-18, the NHAI awarded 150 road projects of 7,400 km worth ~1,220 billion, an all-time high and a record achievement for the agency since its inception in 1995, said an official statement last week. It is expected projects of around 3,000 km will be awarded in April and May 2018.

Of the projects awarded in the last financial year, 3,791-km length was awarded in EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) mode at a cost of ~430 billion; 3,396 km awarded in hybrid annuity mode at a cost of ~765 billion; and 209 km in toll mode at a cost of

~25 billion.

Tendering and awarding projects picked up only after the sanction of the ambitious Bharatmala programme and subsequent new procedures for sanction being put in place in November 2017.

Under the new protocol, the NHAI board was delegated full powers for sanctioning EPC projects. Following this, a Projects Appraisal Committee and a Cost Committee were set up in the NHAI.