Govt focus on road sector yields positive results: ICRA
Government's focus on developing roads with policy initiatives like awarding projects after securing 80 per cent right of way, has revived the sector and execution pace, credit rating agency ICRA said .
Effective policy measures over the last 36 months have revived the Indian road sector, it said.
ICRA said in a statement that the steps also include delegating the power to grant forest clearances to regional offices and online filing for clearances.
Roads sector was marred by execution delays, project cancellations, stalled projects, loss of lender confidence, leveraged balance sheets of developers and sluggish traffic growth, it said.
According to Shubham Jain, VP and Sector Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA Ltd,most of these measures were fully implemented by the end of FY2015 and therefore FY2016 saw a sharp pick up in execution pace by about 37 per cent, followed by 35 per cent growth in FY2017.
He said other policy measures such as back-ending premium payment, compensating concessionaires for delays not attributable to them, relaxing exit norms and one-time fund infusion by the NHAI are expected to address liquidity-related concerns faced by the developers.
Besides, ICRA said, asset sales in the road sector have picked up over the last 30 months with the relaxation in exit policy.
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01-2026
