Interesting News & Events - 2nd Aug, 2021

1- Low Bidding in Road Projects: India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has its own view

There is a trend these days that the road projects of NHAI are being bid at far lower prices than NHAI’s estimate. Popular understanding is that if you have bid higher than -15% you have lost it. Different people have different understandings and explanations for the situation.

A report by India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), the credit rating agency has its own view. The crux of this report is that because of high budget allocation to NHAI the competition has increased. Various EPC companies are looking to fill their order books from road projects because of the better financial profile of NHAI. This rush has increased the competition and as a consequence, the price dropped. But the report warns that this competition could impact the quality of construction.

2- Construction of National Highways in the country hit a three-year high in FY 21

Another rating agency, Crisil, said that Covid could not affect the National Highway construction in India.

In the first quarter of FY21, when the country was in the midst of the pandemic, the total Award of NH was 1658 km which is a 123% increase. Whereas, in the first quarter of FY22 total award was 1681 km, a 1.4% increase. Overall awards were 10,965 km in FY21 which is 3 years high.

The same was the trend in construction as well.

This clearly shows that National highway construction in India remained unimpacted by the pandemic.

3- Let The Road Move for You

Traffic and especially urban traffic cause so many problems like air pollution, sound pollution, delays due to jams and others. What if instead of we moving on the road the road moves for us?

Dhaka based?film director Abu Sayeed thinks likewise?and came up with the concept of moving roads to get respite from traffic issues. According to him Moving Road’ has got advantages like:

• Cities will be free from traffic jams.
• The system is eco-friendly.
• It will save fuel/ electricity.
• Annual outlays on transport can be pared down.
• The cost of implementation is low and this can be achieved by available technical know-how.

The concept goes like this:

These roads will be made around 20 ft. above the ground and people, not cars, will be lifted with help of escalators, lifts etc. The existing road network will not get disturbed. There will be tracks of around 6 ft. on which seats will be fitted and the passengers (passengers of road, interesting) can also stand. Protection from wind rain etc. will also be available. Moreover, Mr Sayeed claims that average speed of traffic will rise to 40-50kmph by using this device.

Very interesting, isn’t it? Although many questions would have come into your mind which will be answered only during detailed design but I sincerely hope that this concept becomes a reality.

The idea was floated in 2018 and 7.5 Cr Taka (Bangladeshi currency) have been approved by the Government for a pilot project but the project is still waiting for the light of the day.