The total outlay, as per the revised proposal, for the Ninth Plan has been fixed at Rs 16,513.27 crore. The bulk of the funds would come as gross budgetary support (GBS) amounting to Rs 11,960.27 crore. The rest would be private sector contribution Rs 3,553 crore for the schemes of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Rs 1,000 crore for projects under the ministry of surface transport.

The situation is likely to change significantly in the Tenth Plan with more emphasis on private sector participation in the roads sector.

According to an assessment made by the Planning Commission, the Tenth Plan would also have to provide funds for the projects likely to be spilled over to the next plan. Under the programme of development of the national highwaynetwork, the spill over is expected to be of the order of Rs 4,000 crore including Rs 2,500 crore for major four-laining projects being handled by NHAI.

The NHAI, which is is involved in four-laining exercise of the Golden Quadrilateral linking Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta and New Delhi, will have a spill over of 4,576 km for the Tenth Plan period. As per the assessment, the funds would be required for completion of the 53 bypasses of the identified 100 bypasses as only 47 were likely to be constructed during the Ninth Plan.

The funds would also be needed in the next plan for completion of the construction of 470 major and minor bridges, of which 339 are proposed to be completed during the Ninth Plan period.

The Planning Commission, in its special action plan, has underlined the need for a focussed road development programme involving strengthening and improving all crucial sections of the highway network through gradual removal of deficiencies, multi-laining of high density corridors, promoting energyconservation, safety and environmental preservation.

It has also emphasised that projects should be developed section-wise rather than in isolated stretches so that highway users reap full benefits of the improvements carried out. This would also curtail infrastructure expenditure which may have to be incurred if different improvement works for the same sections are undertaken in phases.The commission has further pointed out that the considering the constraint of budgetary resources and requirement of the development of highways, it might not be possible to develop the highway sector from the resources available with the central and state governments. "It is therefore necessary to involve the private sector," it stressed.