No shortage of funding in SPVs: Kamal Nath

New Delhi, Jan 14(ANI): Union Transport Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways does not have any shortage of funding in the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) segment.

Addressing the inaugural session of the National Seminar on Concrete Highway Project, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Nath said: "They are taking stakes. I mean there is no shortage of funding coming into SPVs, if you talk to them."

"I mean, I was told by one of the financial institutions, I don't want to name them, that they have already put in 1.8 billion dollars. So, SPVs are very important...for our toll projects to get funded, these SPVs to get funded. That's most important and that's my effort," he added.

Nath pointed out that the Government would be looking for some aim from the World Bank.

"We are not looking that somebody will come and fund the Government; we only think that (what) we are looking at is the World Bank, but the SPVs, if they don't get funded, we are not going to get adequate number of bids, then there will not be enough interest in this. That is the problem," Nath said.he Minister also said that India has started manufacturing world-class vehicles and therefore the country deserved world-class roads, which his ministry was committed to build.

He further highlighted the importance of improved technology and processes in this context.

During the seminar, Nath also said that if India's highways programme looks at incremental usage of concrete, then India's cement industry would have to consider whether the current capacity would be able to meet the additional demand from the road and highway projects.

Commenting on the current performance of the cement industry, the Minister said that the sector was booming and therefore there were no issues related to supply and demand.

The Minister also said that there is a need to have at least "20,000 km of work-in-progress (roads) to be able to attain 20 kilometers of road-building capacity per day, or 7000 km of roads a year". (ANI)