CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE ATTACHED TO MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS MEETS

MAJ. GEN. (Retd) KHANDURI CALLS FOR SPEEDY UTILISATION OF ROAD DEVELOPMENT FUNDS BY THE STATES

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The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Road Transport and Highways, Major General (Retd.), B. C. Khanduri today called for speedy utilisation of road development funds provided by the Central Government to the States. He was speaking at the third Meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, here today. The subject for today's Meeting was Central Road Fund (CRF).

Speaking on the occasion, Maj.Gen. Khanduri urged upon the Members of Parliament to bring to the notice of the Ministry if any CRF funded road development project being undertaken in their constituency was not upto the stipulated standards of quality and strength.

The Minister said that till 1998, a meager sum of about Rs. 25 crore was being collected by way of tax on auto fuel for improvement of roads which was grossly inadequate. In 1998, it was decided to take up major infrastructure projects for development of roads and highways all over the country, he said.

"The present Government has taken a number of notable steps to arrange finance for our roads. Based on the principle of user paying for the services, a cess of Rs. 1 per litre of petrol from June 1998 and Rs. 1 per litre of diesel from March 1999 have been levied. Revenues from these two levies are accrued to the Central Road Fund. This has resulted in an allocation of Rs. 1192 crore, Rs. 5590 crore, Rs. 5962 crore and Rs.5880 crore from the revamped Central Road Fund during 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03 respectively," the Minister said.

The year-wise CRF distribution details are as follows:

(Rs. in crore)

Year	National Highways	State Roads	Roads of inter-State connectivity & of Economic Importance	Rural Roads	Railways	Total
1999-00	1192	-	-	-	-	-
2000-01	1800	985	05	2500	300	5590
2001-02	2100	962	100	2500	300	5962
2002-03	2000	980	100	2500	300	5880

The CRF Act, 2000 provides for:

50% of cess from diesel for rural roads

Balance 50% of cess from diesel and entire cess from petrol to be shared as follows:-

57.5% for the development and maintenance of National Highways

30% for State roads, 10% of which i.e. 3% for roads of Inter-State connectivity & Economic Importance.

12.5% for Safety Works at Railways Level crossings and road under/over bridges.

At present, the entire allocation for national highways out of the CRF is being earmarked for the National Highways Development Project. The accrual of funds to various States under the CRF are calculated on the basis of 60% weightage of petrol and diesel consumption and 40% weightage to the geographical area of the State. During 2000-01, an amount of Rs.985 crore was provided for State roads out of which an amount of Rs.332 crore was released to the States based on the Utilisation Certificates submitted by the respective States. During 2001-02, an amount of Rs.962.00 crore was provided for State roads out of which an amount of Rs.300.00 crore was released to the States based on utilisation. During 2002-03, an amount of Rs.980.00 crore has been provided for this purpose and funds are being released to the States, subject to receipt of Utilisation Certificates and Progress Reports for the previous release made to the States. Funds to the tune of Rs.250 crore have been released to various States so far for the year 2002-03 based on their Utilisation Certificates.

Under the revamped CRF, a total of 1333 number of proposals amounting to Rs.2294 crore received from the States have been approved till date. However, only Rs.882 crore has been released so far due to slow utilisation by the States.

The Minister expressed concern at the slow pace of utilisation of CRF Funds by the State Governments. "Allocated funds have not been utilised efficiently by the States. The matter has been taken up at the level of State Chief Ministers. Recently utilisation of funds has shown some improvement. Hon’ble Members may kindly pursue the matter with the State Authorities for effective utilisation of funds so that the users are benefited from improved roads" the Minister stressed.

Among those who participated in today's meeting included Dr. Ranjit Kumar Panja, Shri A. Brahmaniah, Shri Devendra Prasad Yadav, Shri Nikhilananda Sar, Shri P.K. Samantray, Shri Ramsheth Thakur, Shri Ram Rati Bind, Shri Lakshman Seth, Shri Bikram Keshari Deo, Shri J. Chitharanjan, Shri R. Kamaraj and Shri S.P.M. Syed Khan, all Members of Parliament, besides senior officials of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.