The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will absorb around 200 employees on deputation with it.
On Wednesday, the NHAI board cleared a proposal to induct 50 per cent of the employees on deputation into the authority after checking their record. This would save a lot of time that would have been wasted in the process of recruiting them through the usual procedure, it felt.
“The board has allowed us to induct 50 per cent of our existing employees on deputation and we will add around 200 employees,” said a senior NHAI official.
The NHAI board, whose over 85 per cent staff is on deputation, had earlier rejected the proposal saying a proper recruitment process should be followed under which the already-working officials could get some extra weightage.
Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath has been advocating a permanent workforce for the NHAI, terming the authority as a “departure lounge where everyone is ready to leave”. He had also asked the authority to build its own cadre. Nath has also asked the authority to decentralise its functioning and open regional offices in state capitals.
To save time wasted in getting clearance for public-private partnership (PPP) projects, the board also decided that projects that had got clearance from the authority did not need to go to the PPP Appraisal Committee.
It also decided that not all restructured projects should go to the Cabinet for clearance, Only projects where the value change after restructuring was over 20 per cent should go to the Cabinet, it decided.