India's Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the selection of a private partner for two PPP projects:

• Four laning of the Aurangabad-Yedeshi section of National Highway-211 in Maharashtra under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase IV on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT-Annuity) in Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) pattern.

• Four laning of the Sangrur-Punjab/Haryana border section of National Highway-71 in Punjab under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase IV on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT-Annuity) in Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) pattern.

The cost of the first is estimated to be Rs. 2406.63 crore (US$392 million) including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities. The total length of the road will be approximately 190 km with paved shoulders.

The project will expedite improvement of infrastructure in Maharashtra and also reduce the time and cost of travel for traffic, particularly heavy traffic, plying between Aurangabad-Yedeshi section of National Highway-211. This stretch is a link between NH-3 and NH-4 in Maharashtra and shall be giving feeder traffic to 'Yedeshi-Solapur' meeting Golden Quadrilateral NH-4 at solapur city.

The Request for Qualifications for this project was published in November 2012.

Four laning of the Sangrur-Punjab/Haryana border

The cost is estimated to be Rs. 612.28 crore (US$100 million) including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities. The total length of the road will be approximately 57 km with paved shoulders. The project will expedite improvement of infrastructure in Punjab and also reduce the time and cost of travel for traffic, particularly heavy traffic, plying between Sangrur-Punjab/Haryana border section of National Highway-71. The project is covered in Sangrur and Patiala Districts of Punjab. The main townships on the project Highway are Sangrur, Patran and Khanauri.

Both project will be awarded soon as this is the last step before a project is awarded to a private partner.