According to him, the underlying rationale for not allowing foreign participation in such projects was that they were time consuming.

Kumar, however, said that the government had decided to allow foreign participation in bigger projects. "The decision on foreign participation will be taken on a case-to-case basis and would depend on technology transfer", he added.

Speaking at the valedictory session the union minister for surface transport M Thambi Durai said that the economy could not be lifted up without high speed roads and if this was an expensive proposition, the nation must be ready to pay the price for benefits of higher economicgrowth.