Port-link plan delayed further

With the contracts for two projects under the port connectivity programme having been terminated in the last one month, the programme is likely to get delayed further.

Around 380 km of highways connecting 12 major ports are to be four-laned under the programme. However, on April 30, only 151 km of roads had been four-laned, 40 per cent of the target.

Around 200 kilometres of roads are in the process of being upgraded while the contracts for the remaining stretches are yet to be awarded.

On April 30, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) terminated the contract for the 53-km Kolaghat-Haldia port stretch for poor performance of the contractors""China National Water Resources and Hydro Power Engineering Corporation-Harishchandra India. The work was awarded on July 24, 2002. The project was to be completed by March 2005. However, the NHAI officials said despite three extensions to the contractors, on January 2006, August 2006 and February 2007, respectively, the project was only 41 per cent complete.

The companies have challenged the cancellation in the Delhi High Court. However, the NHAI, which has the authority to call for a rebid may take this option, sources say. The rebidding, however, takes eight to nine months and with the project progressing slowly, it may not finish by 2015, the deadline for the national highway development programme (NHDP), of which it is a part.

The second terminmated contract was awarded to M/s Mecon-GEA Energy System for four-laning of the 10-km stretch on National Highway-47 connecting the Cochin port.

The NHAI officials said the concessionaires started work in February 2004. The work was supposed to end by August 2006. However, till April 2007, the project was only 44.8 per cent complete, said NHAI officials.

The programme has been in trouble right from inception. Though it received the Cabinet's approval in 2000, the work was awarded in 2004.

For this, the highways ministry blamed state governments for failing to pay their share of 70 per cent equity to the Centre even three years after the project was cleared. The National Highway Authority of India's (NHAI) share in the equity was 30 per cent. The balance was supposed to be generated by state governments.

The ministry officials say though problems like shifting of utilities, lack of enough land and non- performance of concessionaires have been there, port authorities, too, have been slow in complying with the works.

Till 2003, none of the ports had paid their equity share and even the alignments were also not decided. The ports paid their equity share only in August 2004 and delayed the detailed project reports, the officials said.