CAG report: Railways took 5 years to clear Andhra Pradesh overbridge

NEW DELHI: Road developers get three years to complete projects, but in several cases approvals for rail over bridges (ROBs) and rail under bridges (RUBs) came after the stipulated construction period---in some cases after more than five years. The recent CAG report has brought out how such delays and others including green clearances have derailed several highway projects.

For example, railways took 1,946 days (5 years and 3 months) to approve ROB in the case of Vijaywada-Chilakaluripet highway project. It was no different in the case of Gorakhpur Bypass where the approval came after 1,618 days from the schedule date. There were similar delays in the cases of Mahua-Jaipur and Gurgaon-Kothputli-Jaipur stretches. In eight out of total 94 projects that were reviewed the approvals came after three years and in another 18 projects such clearances came between one and three years.

The delays in projects taking off are on account of non-availability of land, environment clearances and developers taking time to tie-up funds besides approvals from railways. Only in one-third of the cases NHAI could hand over the requisite land for starting work. "As land was acquired in piecemeal at different times, audit was unable to quantify the impact of delays in land acquisition," the report said.

On the delay caused due to held up green clearances, the report mentions how in 31 projects such go ahead came as late as 26 days and 1,350 days (over three-and-a-half years).



"The NHAI highlighted the fact that NHAI was unable to resolve these bottlenecks even after more than 18 years of its operations and after more than seven years (2006) since NHAI started awarding projects on PPP mode," the report said.

Highlighting how financing also contributed to delays, the report mentions how in over one-third projects, the delays due to fund raising ranged between three-and-a-half months and over one-and-a-half years.

However, after the new government came several steps have been taken to streamline railway clearances and online tracking of applications relating to ROBs and RUBs. Moreover, timelines have been set to approve such applications.