New Delhi, May 31: The government will decide on the divestment strategy for the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) in June. Speaking to mediapersons on Wednesday, Union surface transport minister Rajnath Singh did not rule out the possibility of involving the private sector.The erstwhile disinvestment commission had suggested that oil companies pick up stake in the shipping line. The proposal did not find favour with the companies with a result that the government was considering offloading equity in favour of a strategic partner.
The minister said the government wanted to increase SCI's share in the transportation of imported crude and reduce outgo of foreign exchange on account of chartering of foreign flag vessels. With this view it had cleared a proposal for acquiring four Aframax crude oil tankers (110,000 dwt) at a cost of Rs 157.02 crore per vessel from Hyundai Heavy Industries Company of South Korea.
On the road sector, Singh said that $500-million loan from the World Bank for road development will be finalised in June.
During the current financial year contracts for 3,169 km on the Golden Quadrilateral and 370 km on the East-West North-South corridors would be awarded.
Singh said that a meeting of the Transport Development Council, comprising transport ministers from all states, would be convened on June 8. Another meeting of state public works ministers would be held on June 12.
The two meetings would aim at enhancing private participation in road projects and expediting work on improving the riding quality of roads.He said that states would be asked to ensure proper utilisation of funds allocated to them for road development. On private sector participation, he said model concession agreements had been finalised for big projects costing more than Rs 100 crore and small projects of less than Rs 100 crore.Variants of build-operate-transfer scheme, like annuity and shadow tolling, would also be implemented.
An additional Rs 1,900 crore was being made available to the ministry from the cess from petrol and diesel. This would be spent on development and maintenance of national highways.
The Union Cabinet had approved the proposal for creation of a dedicated road fund, but a Bill in this regard could not be introduced in the Budget session of Parliament. His ministry now planned to have an ordinance issued for establishing the central road fund, Singh said. A strategy was being finalised to improve the riding quality of national highways as the ministry had sanctioned Rs 547 crore for carrying out such work on 3,700 km length of road.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.