In what could be seen as an initial impact of the conflict of interest clause controversy, which has affected highway tendering process, surface transport minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday rescheduled the target to award projects in Work Plan I to June 2010.
The highway projects under Work Plan I, which envisages awarding about 125 projects worth Rs 100,000 crore spanning 12,000 km, were to be awarded by end of March.
“We will be able to award the projects only by June next. There has been a delay because we wanted to iron out the tendering process,” said Nath.
Only seven projects have been awarded by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) since Nath took over in May this year.
Nath said the threshold limit of shareholding under the conflict of interest clause has been raised from 5% to 25% with immediate effect.
The clause had created roadblocks with two private companies moving court when they were disqualified under the clause which says competing bidders for a project should not hold more than 5% stake directly or indirectly in each other’s companies.
“A decision on other issues relating to the clause will be taken in two weeks. New bids will be invited with the corrected conflict of interest clause,” Nath said.
Meanwhile, the government has begun preparation for the Work Plan II, which is also likely to see the awarding of another Rs 100,000 crore of highway projects during 2010-2011.
“The first part of the second plan, which entails identification of the stretches and preparation of the project reports has been initiated. These things take around a year. So work on the projects that you have to award by November next year has to start now,” said Nath.
Road development in Naxal-prone areas is also high on the governments agenda. “We have an approved scheme of Rs 7,300 crore for eight Naxal-hit states. We have just made allocation of Rs 500 crore for 2009,” said Nath.
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