Pointing out that "corruption is prevalent in road projects", a parliamentary panel has said that a nexus between middlemen, bad contractors and corrupt officials cannot be ruled out as one of the major reasons for delays in road projects.
As many as 268 road projects, including 122 being implemented by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), have been delayed as on January 31 this year.
Road Minister CP Joshi told Lok Sabha today the delays occurred due to various reasons like problems in land acquisition, obtaining environment and forest clearances etc.
"What worries the committee the most is the general sense of helplessness in fighting out this unholy nexus and the consequent alarmingly high 'delivery leakages'. The committee did not find any serious attempt made or proposed against such a nexus in the road sector," the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport said in its 163rd report.
The committee notes that apart from land acquisition and various clearances, poor performance of contractors is a major reason for delays in road projects, the 41-member panel, headed by CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury, said.
Asking the Transport Ministry to review the existent mechanism to prevent corruption in road projects and put in a "more effective mechanism" in place, it said "the 20 km per day project is the need of the hour".
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However, the panel termed this as an "ambitious target" based on past experience and expressed apprehensions that NHAI would be able to utilise fully the increased budgetary estimates for the current fiscal.
The expenditure incurred by the Transport Ministry was Rs 14,981 crore during 2009-10. The Budgetary estimates for 2010-11 was Rs 25,455 crore.