'Peeved' 16 highway chief engineers quit in a huff
On Wednesday, 16 chief engineers of joint secretary rank in the road transport and highways ministry and NHAI put in their papers en mass.
By Dipak Kumar Dash, TNN | Updated:
NEW DELHI: On Wednesday, 16 chief engineers of joint secretary rank in the road transport and highways ministry and NHAI put in their papers en mass. Though the engineers claimed that they have applied for the voluntary retirement scheme, the mass resignation came on the day the ministry reportedly held a stormy session on a new model of highway construction at Transport Bhawan.
Sources said that the engineers submitted their resignation to highway secretary A K Upadhyaya. A cold war had been brewing between the engineers and the Planning Commission over some of the controversial norms proposed by a representative of the Plan panel for a new contracting system, engineer-procure-construct (EPC).
This new mode of road construction will be followed for construction of 20,000 km of two-lane highways at an estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore. While the Plan panel had been pushing the private contractor to maintain these stretches for two years, the engineers and other officials wanted the tenure to be extended to five years. The ministry had also been opposing the panel's proposal to restrict the number of bidders for these projects to ensure fair and open competition.
"There has been undue interference from some representatives of the Planning Commission. We are being made to accept their diktats," said one of the chief engineers who submitted his paper.
Though engineers have only come out openly against such a norm, senior bureaucrats in NHAI and the ministry felt that the engineers might have taken the step after things became "intolerable". "There is growing discontent over too much interference by outsiders," said one of them.
There have been cases of growing differences between the ministry officials and Planning Commission over issues like building of safe highways vis-a-vis financially viable stretches.
However, the mass resignation has come at a time when the minister C P Joshi has been pushing for greater transparency, and also the highway construction is back on track. "Although any undue interference from anyone, who is unaccountable is untenable, the organized revolt by senior engineers is also unwarranted," said a senior ministry official.
Despite repeated attempts, Upadhyaya remained incommunicado.
Sources said that the engineers submitted their resignation to highway secretary A K Upadhyaya. A cold war had been brewing between the engineers and the Planning Commission over some of the controversial norms proposed by a representative of the Plan panel for a new contracting system, engineer-procure-construct (EPC).
This new mode of road construction will be followed for construction of 20,000 km of two-lane highways at an estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore. While the Plan panel had been pushing the private contractor to maintain these stretches for two years, the engineers and other officials wanted the tenure to be extended to five years. The ministry had also been opposing the panel's proposal to restrict the number of bidders for these projects to ensure fair and open competition.
"There has been undue interference from some representatives of the Planning Commission. We are being made to accept their diktats," said one of the chief engineers who submitted his paper.
Though engineers have only come out openly against such a norm, senior bureaucrats in NHAI and the ministry felt that the engineers might have taken the step after things became "intolerable". "There is growing discontent over too much interference by outsiders," said one of them.
There have been cases of growing differences between the ministry officials and Planning Commission over issues like building of safe highways vis-a-vis financially viable stretches.
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However, the mass resignation has come at a time when the minister C P Joshi has been pushing for greater transparency, and also the highway construction is back on track. "Although any undue interference from anyone, who is unaccountable is untenable, the organized revolt by senior engineers is also unwarranted," said a senior ministry official.
Despite repeated attempts, Upadhyaya remained incommunicado.
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