PM Panel wants NHDP projects to take highway
This is one programme that the government would do best to keep under wraps.
By Gunjan Pradhan Sinha & Subhash Narayan, TNN |
NEW DELHI: This is one programme that the government would do best to keep under wraps.
The ambitious National Highway Development Project (NHDP) has failed miserably on all counts, presenting an embarrassing situation for the UPA government that recently completed four years in office.
The situation has reached a stage where even the original NHDP-I programme involving construction of golden quadrilateral to connect the four metros is yet to be completed.
The poor state of affairs over the development of road projects came to light at a recent meeting of prime minister���s committee on infrastructure (CoI) that has now directed the department of road transport and highways to pull up socks and show some results on the ground, an official source said.
In the review meeting, it was found that 10 stretches of NHDP-I involving a distance of 130 km are yet to be finished even after 8 years of conception.
The situation is equally bad for NHDP-II projects (involving construction of North-South-East-West corridor) where work on 841 km of section still needs to be completed. Various issues like incomplete surveys, clearance of forest land, permission from wild life authorities and tunnelling work has delayed the project.
A stretch of estimated investment of Rs 264 crore in J&K has been stuck for long a time as it requires the construction of two tunnels worth Rs 9,000 crore each.
Even the award of build-operate-transfer (BoT) contracts in NHDP-III has been very slow. Under NHDP-III (involving four-laning of BoT projects) contracts have been awarded for a mere 2,075 km while work remains incomplete on a targeted stretch of 12,109 km.
A stretch of 3,000 km of Phase IV of NHDP has been found unviable even though the Cabinet approved it six months ago. To add to the mess, work on six-laning of the golden quadrilateral at an estimated investment of Rs 41,000 crore has begun while earlier programmes remain incomplete.
With an investment of Rs 27,800 crore, the government plans to create a two-lane highway on build-operate-transfer basis under NHDP-IV.
However, the ministry of road transport and highways is awaiting an approval from the Cabinet committee on economic affairs for the first stretch of 5,000 km.
The ambitious National Highway Development Project (NHDP) has failed miserably on all counts, presenting an embarrassing situation for the UPA government that recently completed four years in office.
The situation has reached a stage where even the original NHDP-I programme involving construction of golden quadrilateral to connect the four metros is yet to be completed.
The poor state of affairs over the development of road projects came to light at a recent meeting of prime minister���s committee on infrastructure (CoI) that has now directed the department of road transport and highways to pull up socks and show some results on the ground, an official source said.
In the review meeting, it was found that 10 stretches of NHDP-I involving a distance of 130 km are yet to be finished even after 8 years of conception.
The situation is equally bad for NHDP-II projects (involving construction of North-South-East-West corridor) where work on 841 km of section still needs to be completed. Various issues like incomplete surveys, clearance of forest land, permission from wild life authorities and tunnelling work has delayed the project.
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A stretch of estimated investment of Rs 264 crore in J&K has been stuck for long a time as it requires the construction of two tunnels worth Rs 9,000 crore each.
Even the award of build-operate-transfer (BoT) contracts in NHDP-III has been very slow. Under NHDP-III (involving four-laning of BoT projects) contracts have been awarded for a mere 2,075 km while work remains incomplete on a targeted stretch of 12,109 km.
A stretch of 3,000 km of Phase IV of NHDP has been found unviable even though the Cabinet approved it six months ago. To add to the mess, work on six-laning of the golden quadrilateral at an estimated investment of Rs 41,000 crore has begun while earlier programmes remain incomplete.
With an investment of Rs 27,800 crore, the government plans to create a two-lane highway on build-operate-transfer basis under NHDP-IV.
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However, the ministry of road transport and highways is awaiting an approval from the Cabinet committee on economic affairs for the first stretch of 5,000 km.
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