NEW DELHI: A bonus of up to 10 per cent of total project cost may be offered to firms that construct and deliver highway projects a year before the deadline. The government is considering incentivising early completion of highway projects through National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highways Industrial Development Corporation (NHIDCL), officials said.The road transport and highways ministry expects the financial burden of such bonuses will be offset by saving 5 per cent on average in annual cost escalation. The total project of any highway project is derived by taking into account 5 per cent annual cost escalation during the construction period.“We’ll be giving bonus up to 10 per cent to the contractors who deliver the project before the official deadline. It will reduce the construction cost and we will be saving 5 per cent cost escalation for a year,” a senior ministry official said.Different slabs — from 3 per cent of project cost up to 10 per cent — depending on early delivery, have been set for projects to be awarded under public-private partnership model and government-funded engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model. The ministry is struggling to meet the ambitious road construction target set by the minister Nitin Gadkari For the current year, the ministry has set the highway construction target at 10,000 km. It is hopeful of clocking more than 8,000 km, which will be the highest ever in a financial year even as it falls short of the target.The construction of Zojila tunnel at a height of more than 11,000 feet near Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir will be the first such project where the government will offer 10 per cent bonus to the construction company for completing the project in six years, a year ahead of the official deadline.The project, being constructed on the EPC model, will be awarded by April, officials said.The move does make sense. But, in parallel, we need innovative project management skills that are cutting-edge and up-to-date.We need to incentivise new-knowledge creation at, for instance, IITs and leverage the effort to boost productivity and processes in highway construction. Also needed is participatory project monitoring online, so that all concerned can log on and review project schedules on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis.