Rail overbridge projects to get speedy clearance soon

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modiled government is getting ministries and departments to work together to get things moving even though big-bang infrastructure initiatives have remained elusive. The often feuding railways and highways ministries, for instance, have decided to develop templates for railway overbridges, differences have stalled these projects, and waive off maintenance charges to expedite their completion.

For starters, the road developers struggling to get the designs of the rail overbridges would be able to get faster approvals. The Railway Board is developing a web portal which will upload generic design templates for such bridges so that companies can follow a standard model. "It would take anywhere between six to eight months to get a ROB (rail overbridge) cleared. And even after the clearance, the design would be questioned causing a delay of a few more months. This needs to be implemented soon," said M Murali, director general of the National Highway Builders' Federation.

There are over 180 such bridges pending government approval, according to the federation’s data, which have stalled the projects. The National Highways Authority is providing its feedback to the railway board on these designs.

Last month, the rail ministry had moved the approvals for rail over bridges online.

The Railway Board has also decided to waive off maintenance charges on the rail over bridges in public private partnership projects.

"The move will improve the viability of the projects. It counts much more now since the lending from banks has slowed down significantly in the highways sector," a senior NHAI member who did not wish to be named said.

The maintenance charges, at 30 per cent of the cost of the bridge, are an upfront payment made to the railways. For PPP projects, this has been an extra cost since responsibility of maintenance is with the concessionaire.

The gesture of this waiver will be reciprocated by the highway ministry in case of charges on railway work on the NHAI land.

Besides, the issue of safety clearances from the railways which at times take even two to three years to procure is being dealt with by the two ministries.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety is in the process of drafting the broad guidelines on safety parameters and the required deadlines to meet the same. "There’s no uniform rule followed by each railway zone in giving safety clearances. Delays are bound to happen then," a senior government official said. Close to 189 highway projects involving investments of around Rs. 1,80,000 crore had got stuck due to problems of land acquisition, delays in forest and environment clearances, non-transfer of defence land and hurdles in rail overbridges.