After the announcement of building cement concrete roads by the Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, cement manufacturers have promptly offered cement at discounted price. Over three dozen cement manufacturers have offered to supply cement for as low as 125 a bag to the government for infrastructure development. On an average, the price tag of Rs 180-190 a bag is a whopping discount, of 30 per cent from the market price of Rs 270-300 for a 50 kg bag. Leading companies including ACC, Ambuja, Jaypee, UltraTech, Reliance, etc., have participated in the bids and quoted prices at over 200 factory outlets spread all over the country. Participating companies will have to give a bank guarantee of Rs 10 lakh each, which will be forfeited if they do not supply cement at the price quoted by them.
Initially, the transport ministry was to enter in a long-term contract with cement manufacturers and reduce cement price volatility. Since the government cannot get private road building companies to buy cement at these prices, it has now decided to make these quoted prices public to ensure transparency.
The heavy discounts make the cement concrete roads commercially attractive in comparison to bitumen roads. Cement concrete roads don?t need maintenance for 15-20 years, so the overall investment will come down drastically in the long term.