CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE ATTACHED
TO MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS MEETS
MAJ.
GEN. (Retd.) KHANDURI CALLS FOR GREATER COOPERATION FROM STATES
FOR TIMELY COMPLETION OF NHDP
The Union Minister for
Road Transport and Highways, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) B.C. Khanduri today
called for greater cooperation from the States to speed up land
acquisition for widening and development of more than 13,000 km
of national highways under the National Highways Development Project.
He was speaking at the second meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative
Committee attached to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways,
here today. The subject for today’s meeting was the National Highways
Development Project (NHDP).
At the outset, Gen.
Khanduri welcomed the new Minister of State for Road Transport
and Highways, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik to the Ministry. Giving
details of the NHDP, the Minister said that it is the largest
highway project ever undertaken in the country under which about
13,146 km of national highways are proposed to be 4/6 laned. Out
of the total Golden Quadrilateral (Phase I of NHDP) length of
5846 km involving 13 States, 1408 km have been already four laned
while work is under implementation on length of 4354 km, he said.
The 84 km Allahabad Bypass, which is being undertaken under World
Bank loan, is the only stretch of GQ which is yet to be awarded,
the Minister informed, while adding that the contracts of Allahabad
Bypass are planned to be awarded in the next three months. Regarding
the 7300 km North-South and East-West Corridors (Phase II of NHDP)
passing through 17 States, the Minister said that 557 km has been
four laned, 423 km is under implementation while work is to be
awarded on 6294 km. The corridors are scheduled for completion
by December, 2007.
The Minister listed
the major problems encountered in implementation of GQ as follows:
- Land Acquisition: some States
have not acquired the required land in time; in fact, Tamil
Nadu and Maharashtra are yet to hand over nearly 60% of land.
- Environment/Forest Clearance:
Considerable delay in States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in
year 2001 and 2002.
- Quarries: Delayed permissions
by the State Governments affected the work in some cases by
6 to 9 months. Quarries were not given to contractors in Bihar.
They have to procure aggregate from private suppliers.
- Law and order: Serious problems
of law and order have affected the work in Bihar; local people
are obstructing work of construction, making unreasonable
demands for structures such as flyovers and underpasses in
many States.
- Court cases: in one case, award
of work was held up for 19 months.
- Removal of structures and utilities:
removal of structures (including places of worship) and utilities
has taken very long time in some States.
- Time taken in approval of design
and grant of permission for construction of Railway Overhead
Bridges (ROB’s) by Railways: 84 nos. of ROB’s to be constructed
on GQ to eliminate all rail level crossing.
- Bad performance by some Indian
and foreign contractors
- External funding agencies stipulating
longer period for pre-construction and construction activities.
In spite of these
problems, Gen. Khanduri stressed that the Government is committed
to timely completion of the Project and is taking the following
steps to expedite the progress of works:
- Introduction of Bonus and Penalty
clauses in civil work contracts.
- Official level meetings in States.
- Frequent review meetings at
the level of Minister with Contractors/Consultants/NHAI
- Taking up issues at level of
Minister with Chief Ministers through letters/Meetings particularly
for land acquisition, law and order.
- States requested to nominate
senior officers as Nodal Officer for coordination.
- All project sites connected
to Headquarters by internet and daily and weekly progress
reports received on all contracts.
The Minister said
that completion of NHDP, a dream project of the Hon’ble Prime
Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, would be a giant step in development
of world class road infrastructure in the country.
Among those who participated
in today’s meeting included Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister
of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nand Kumar Singh
Chauhan, Dr. Ranjit Kumar Panja, Shri V. Vetriselvan, Shri A.
Brahmaniah, Shri Jarbom Gamlin, Shri V.S. Sivakumar, Shri Nikhilananda
Sar, Shri P.K. Samantray, Shri Ramsheth Thakur, Shri A.K.S. Vijayan,
Shri Ram Rati Bind, Shri Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Shri Y.G. Mahajan,
Shri Rishang Keishing, Dr. T. Subbarami Reddy and Shri Bashistha
Narain Singh, all Members of Parliament, besides senior officials
of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and National Highways
Authority of India.
