On the lines of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy also finding it difficult to mobilize resources for the maintenance of roads in the state. Following his political mentor Chandrababu, he also decided to privatize R&B and Panchayat Raj roads in the state.
CM Revanth Reddy on Friday issued orders to construct 12,000 kilometers of roads under the R&B department and 17,700 kilometers under the Panchayat Raj department under the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) model. About 30,000 kilometers of roads in the state will be constructed through public-private partnership (PPT). Thus, hundreds of toll gates will come up across the state.
Generally, there are two types of road construction. The first is EPC. This is called the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction model. In this, the government pays money and gets the roads designed and constructed by a private company. The government is responsible for the maintenance.
The second is BOT. This is called the Build Operate Transfer model. That is, private companies build the road and collect taxes from the people through toll gates for a few years. After the specified period, the roads are handed over to the government.
The HAM system is a combination of these two systems. In this system, the government bears 40 percent of the cost of road construction, while private companies have to bear 60 percent. After the construction of the roads is completed, private companies set up toll gates and collect taxes from the public.
The HAM system has been implemented by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for several years. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway and the Purvanchal Expressway were built under the HAM system. The Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway, Lucknow-Ayodhya Expressway, and Raipur-Visakhapatnam Expressway are currently under construction.
The state government has now decided to extend this system, which was limited to highways, to villages. Thus, it is being said that toll gates, which are currently limited to state highways, will also come to villages in the near future. The CM has ordered the completion of road construction within three years. This means that from 2028, you will have to pay a tax to cross the villages!
However, in AP Chandrababu Naidu is only exploring possibilities and decided to take up as a pilot project in Godavari districts.
