<center><b>Webinar</b></center>
  <center><b>COVID19 - Impact and Investment Opportunities in Roads & Highways
  </b></center>
  <center><b>June 16, 2020</b></center>
  <center><b>Brief Report</b></center>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>
  ASSOCHAM organized a Webinar on COVID 19- Impact and Opportunities in Roads & Highways on June 16,
  2020. The welcome address was delivered by Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani, President, ASSOCHAM, Shri B K
  Goenka, Immediate Past President, ASSOCHAM Addressed the participants and shared the Industry
  Perspective. Key Addresses was delivered by the Chief Guest Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon&apos;ble Minister for Road
  Transport & Highways and MSME, Govt. of India. Concluding remarks & a vote of thanks were given by Shri
  Vinod Kumar Agarwal, Co-Chairman, Roads & Highways Council, ASSOCHAM and CMD, G R Infraprojects
  Ltd.</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>
  Discussions were focused on the likely impact of COVID-19 on the overall economy and the post COVID-19
  opportunities in Roads & Highways. Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani said ''the Ministry of Road Transport and
  Highways, has rolled out many schemes and projects for better road connectivity. The ongoing pandemic
  has created many challenges in this sector, but we understand that the government, through a series of
  initiatives, is working on policies to attract significant investor interest''.</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani mentioned that the Government of India has given a massive push to infrastructure
  development and the highways sector in India has been at the forefront of performance and innovation and
  the government has successfully rolled out several projects on the Hybrid Annuity Model.</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>Shri B.K. Goenka, Immediate Past President, ASSOCHAM, and Chairman, Welspun Group said that "under
  the current economic circumstances, the government has to play an important role. The industry needs a
  strong handholding from Government so that we can really become aatmnirbhar in the near future and we all
  know that Infrastructure will play an important role in this journey". He also put forth few important industry
  issues for consideration of the Hon'ble Minister.</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>Shri Nitin Gadkari said that "major reforms in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are being
  undertaken in terms of de-centralisation of work and division of power". He further mentioned that he was of
  the opinion that "we should issue an order whereby without Ministry's permission, NHAI should not
  constitute any committee. They have become so dependent that every person tries to avert decision-making
  at his end. There is also negativity and those who have a positive mindset are afraid to take decisions and
  forward it to committees that consume a lot of time".</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>Hon'ble Union Minister also mentioned that "while in terms of ease of doing business the PM has taken
  many decisions and India's ranking has also improved in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Rankings,

  still certain steps need to be taken and bring in transparency to improve the working in the system. To
  further improve, we will sit together and work on reforms for NHAI. For ease of doing business, we need
  positivity, transparency, and a corruption-free system. Performance audits should be conducted and 
  decision-making should be fast-tracked. He also said that "MoRTH will fix the responsibility in case when the
  court gives a decision against the Ministry and on the basis of that it should be seen who is accountable for
  such a decision".</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'> Hon'ble Minister also informed about a project management consultancy scheme which has probably been
  finalised and it will prove to be very fruitful, be it in terms of technology and other related aspects of the road
  infrastructure sector. He further suggested that the cost of construction can be reduced by using different
  types of materials. The industry may propose new technology which will be considered by the Government.
  Hon'ble Minister also mentioned that low-hanging fruits like reducing construction costs, revamp of NHAI,
  and digital transfer of money by incorporating latest information technology would give relief to the industry.</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>Shri Deepak Sood mentioned that "there is a credit guarantee issued by the central government simply to
  take care of the MSMEs. So I think we need to flag those issues in terms of how the MSMEs are really going
  to get the money, especially if the banks are not really proactive. Shri Sood said construction and real estate
  that employs 15 per cent of the total employment of India and after agriculture, of course, being second into
  that segment becomes an important segment in terms of being able to proactively push it, so we are looking
  for a demand push factor, and of course, we have to thank the honourable minister for is proactiveness in
  the road safety".</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>Shri Vinod Kumar Agarwal proposed the vote of thanks and said Road transport is the arterial network of our
  economy. Having a robust and efficient road system is the backbone essential to the sustainable economic
  and inclusive growth of our country. He further mentioned that with the growth of cities and vehicular traffic,
  the role of national highways will be critical towards not only decongesting the increasing traffic but also
  creating multiple economic hubs through increased mobility. He also said that while the road sector has
  seen significant growth, several challenges still persist, area like road maintenance assume much higher
  significance given the fact that bad roads not only mean a huge cost impact but also negatively affect the
  safety of users. Repair of existing roads is a key challenge both from a time and cost perspective. The
  prolonged lane closure for repairs causes a significant hindrance to move traffic. Prefabrication of concrete
  slabs offsite and assembling at the project site leads to major time-saving in comparison to repairs carried
  out directly on working roads.</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>Shri Vinod Kumar Agarwal mentioned that in a country like India where the state of roads is a key concern
  both in urban areas as well as highways, this technology offers immense advantages to both users as well
  as the government agencies responsible for road maintenance. These technologies while providing benefit<p style='text-align:justify;'>
  over traditional bitumen roads in terms of cost, durability as well as sustainability are also easier to
  implement due to extensive implementation experience across the world and some limited implementation in
  India as well. Similarly, the plastic road is another area where the world is learning from experiments being
  carried out in India.</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>During the interactive session, the distinguished panel of speakers also took questions from the
  participants.</p>
  <p style='text-align:justify;'>The Webinar was attended by 330 representatives of the industry.</p>