Highways project loses steam

REALITY CHECK PART I

The National Democratic Alliance government has always projected its highways development initiative as a big success story.

In the 50 years since Independence, just 556 km of national highways had been four-laned till 1997, averaging around 11 km a year.

In contrast, about 520 km of roads have been upgraded every year between 1998 and 2003 under the Rs 58,000 crore National Highways Development Programme (NHDP), announced in December 1998.

Though this is quite a big achievement in itself, the government now appears to be losing steam. Doubts have been raised over the timely completion of the first phase of NHDP, which is expected to cover 5,846 km.

Till March 2004, the government had completed only 44 per cent or 2,548 km of the target for the first phase, also called the Golden Quadrilateral. With barely 9 months to go before the extended deadline of December 2004 expires, work on over 50 per cent of the first phase remains to be completed.

An internal estimate by the ministry of roads, transport and highways, prepared in October 2003, suggested that only around 85 per cent of the target envisaged under the Golden Quadrilateral project would be achieved by this December. According to the estimate, 17 contracts totalling 865 km are expected to spill over into 2005.

The Golden Quadrilateral portion was originally scheduled for completion in December 2003. The deadline was, however, extended to December 2004 after the ministry came across problems of law and order and lack of co-operation by some states with regard to land acquisition in 31 sections.

Tardy work by contractors, heavy rains and difficulties in utility diversion also contributed to the delay.

Doubts have again surfaced over whether the Golden Quadrilateral project will meet the extended deadline as the government has decided to entrust the task of executing the new Rs 40,000-crore Pradhan Mantri Bharat Jodo Pariyojana to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the implementing agency for the NHDP. The NHAI, which already has its hands full, will now have to allocate time and resources to the new project.

Another major concern is the maintenance of the newly upgraded highway sections. The failure on the part of some contractors to match the maintenance standards, has led the government to issue show-cause notices.

Intertoll, the maintenance and tolling contractor for both the Delhi-Agra (NH-2) and Delhi-Jaipur highway sections (NH-4), was served a notice in September 2003 due to "less than satisfactory" levels of maintenance work on some sections after the monsoon.