India will increase spending in road infrastructure sector, awarding road projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore in coming two years. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister, Kamal Nath said: "We are going to award Rs 1,00,000 crore of projects this year and Rs 1,00,000 crore in the next year."

Mr Nath, speaking at a seminar organised by FICCI, said that government will increase infrastructure activities in coming years, especially in road infrastructure sector, thereby propelling demand in the domestic segment.

He said that new road and highways projects would be initiated while work on ongoing projects will be expedited with the help of the National Highways Authority of India
(NHAI), the apex highway development agency of the country.

NHAI Chairman Brajeshwar Singh said that the authority will address the man-power shortage problem, recruiting 400 people in the next 12-18 months.

India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd, CMD, SS Kohli called for the need to find alternate methods, in addition to build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) or annuity, to award national highways projects.

He added: "The government should give incentives for early completion of projects, allow special purpose vehicles to participate in more projects than one, and channelizing the profits towards equity of the new projects instead of declaring dividend to the holding company."