Page 51 - DIGITAL ISSUE MAY 2018

ROAD & ROAD CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
Give us an understanding about the Tell us about your landmark and recent ongoing roadprojects in India – location, size,
company’s approach towards adopting investment, technologies used etc? Do you have an experience in overseas projects, if
best construction practices and yes, then kindly detail? INTERACTION
technologies that has contributed in We are involved in the development, operation and maintenance of national and
strengthening its footprint in India? state highways in several states in India. Leveraging on the execution experience in
Technology is integral part of almost every implementing 14 Road projects of over 5412 lane km under BOT/Annuity model by
aspect of our operations, from business the Company, its sponsors, subsidiaries and associates, BRNL is currently managing a
development to procurement and quality diverse project portfolio of 6 road projects of over `67 Bn aggregating to almost 2,095
management. With gaining prominence of lane kms across India.
IT system and other internal processes in Out of the six (6) BOT Projects in our portfolio, currently ve (5) Projects are
every aspect of business and operations, we operational and one (1) Project is under Construction.
are constantly strengthening our IT system Our well diversi ed portfolio of BOT/Annuity projects has a geographically widespread
and capabilities to create an environment presence in India.
friendly sustainable business eco system. Following Five (5) projects have commenced operations —
As a BOT player working along with strong • Guruvayoor Infrastructure Pvt Ltd ( rissur to Angamali in the State of Kerala),
and efficient EPC partners for project • Kurukshetra Expressway Pvt Ltd (connecting Rohtak to Bawal section in the state
execution, we do support and encourage of Haryana),
our construction partners to adopt best • Mahakaleshwar Tollways Pvt Ltd (connecting Indore and Ujjain in the State of
construction technologies. Madhya Pradesh)
At BRNL, we are indeed committed • Ghaziabad – Aligarh Expressway Pvt Ltd (connecting Ghaziabad and Aligarh in
towards driving efficiency in tolling the State of Uttar Pradesh)
operations and management through more • Shree Jagannath Expressways Pvt Ltd (connecting Chandikhole to Bhubaneswar
advanced and fully proven technologies Section of NH-5 in the state of Orissa and
to minimise human error resulting from One (1) project is under construction phase
manual intervention and also moving • Solapur Tollways Pvt Ltd (starts from Solapur and ends at Maharashtra-Karnataka
towards more environment friendly Borderin the state of Maharashtra).
transportation solutions that are sustainable
both from energy consumption and an instances of project failing to achieve can expect a big turnaround for the sector.
environment perspective. Our increasing nancial closure, raising funds should not ough we have so far seen the present
focus on the IT infrastructure, applications, be much of a challenge for organisations regime to be quite empathetic to the
and other internal processes necessitates with strong balance sheets and good credit concerns of the industry and have shown
further investments to improve its reliability ratings. Being in infrastructure sector for honest intent to resolve the crisis through
and functionality. over a decade now, we don’t see any issues a series of reform measures, the actual
We intend to strengthen our IT systems and in raising resources for any of our projects action on the ground needs to be e ective
other internal processes to reduce manual Having said that, we must admit that enough to tackle the core issues related to
intervention and improve reliability and there are still some issues related to lenders Land Acquisition, time bound resolution
e ciency of our business and operations. con dence in the sector which has taken a of disputes, faster settlement of claims and
Improved IT systems help us in achieving huge hit in the past few years. e lenders local administrative support to streamline
low operating costs, high operational are still struggling with high volume of on-ground execution mechanism.
e ciency and reduced toll leakages. We are stressed road assets caught in a vicious
in the process of upgrading our existing IT circle of inordinate project delays, cost Which mode of project execution --
systems and are currently in the process of overrun, and default in debt repayment EPC/BOT/BOOT/DBFOT – can be
implementing a fully automated “hands-o ” leading to project turning NPA. Moreover considered as a favorable approach for
operation management system integrating recent circular from RBI in February has road projects in India?
technology primarily to improve the ow of further complicatedinfrastructure lending Future of the road development in India
vehicular tra c and improve safety. and brought uncertainty on re nancing lies only in PPP model irrespective of the
of such assets. One has to understand that choice of execution mode in BOT (Toll),
As a developer tell us of the crucial these assets on PPP are a pool of cash ows BOT (Annuity), HAM or TOT. Although
challenges faced by players like you over a period of time and hence needs we must acknowledge that the government
while executing road projects in India? a provisioning guideline which should has so far been fairly successful in reviving
Is there a concern on smooth availability consider this fact and not be painted with the sector through increased public sector
of financial resources and what is the same yardstick of other sectors which has allocation and awarding projects on EPC
company’s approach in funding projects? a very different business dynamics. The mode. But the investment need for the sector
We believe that the project where bidding Government and the central bank are is humongous and given the budgetary
has been done on conservative parameters, therefore expected to make a concerted constraint, it is imperative that focus should
availability of nancial resources is not a e ort to bring back lenders con dence in start shi ing towards facilitating increased
problem. Even though there are still many the sector and once we see that happen, we private sector participation.

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