NHAI working to identify bottlenecks to speed up road construction

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working to identify bottlenecks in the road construction sector to up its average yearly road construction bar of 4,000 kilometres, a senior government official said.

Filling the gaps in the system will help the authority increase yearly construction by at least 1,000 km to begin with, the official said.

“We are looking at bottlenecks in the system,” a senior official at NHAI told ET.


“We need to increase our construction to 5,000 km per year. For that leap, we need to de-clog the system,” the official added.

The official said that the biggest issue is receiving permission from states to begin construction work, while forest clearances remain a concern as well.

“Real bottlenecks in the system are land acquisition and utility removal, which require streamlining further,” said Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman of Feedback Infra.

Chatterjee said that the permission from other government departments, with respect to say, removal of transmission lines or railway-related works also holds back execution work.

As per market watchers, the government could also look at a committee which can guarantee clearances in a certain timeframe.

For ongoing contracts, a framework for contract renegotiation would help in smooth execution, said Arindam Guha, partner at Deloitte India.

“There are certain factors that lead to change in project milestones and timelines when the project comes in the execution stage.

A strong framework for renegotiating contracts due to forces uncontrollable by neither the contactor, nor the implementing agency, will go a long way in resolving disputes,” Guha added.

The Budget for FY 22 has called for a conciliation framework, and the contract renegotiation guidelines could be enabled through the same, Guha added.