Schedule lags in 107 highway projects; legacy issues for majority

Implementation capability of some aggressive bidders a possible factor

While the number of highway project contracts awarded in 2017-18 touched a new high, a number of older ones are well behind schedule.

In data shared with the Lok Sabha last month, the ministry of road transport and highways said 107 projects had or would miss the originally scheduled completion date.

Most of these were awarded prior to May 2014, when the present government took charge. 

However, 19 of these 107 were awarded between May 2014 and August 2016. 

The average completion time stipuled in the contract for any road project is between two to three years. In some cases,