Despite various initiatives by the UPA government to rejuvenate highway construction activity, the awarding of projects in the sector is not picking up.
The slow pace is exemplified by the fact that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) could not meet the financial bidding targets for November and December.
As per the Work Plan I for the current financial year, which envisages awarding Rs 100,000 crore contracts by March next year, bids for at least 26 projects should have been opened in November itself. This is the revised target for the Work Plan I.
Confirming this on conditions of anonymity, a senior NHAI official said, “A total of 16 financial bids have been opened in the month of November and December.”
The authority, therefore, is far away from the project awarding targets set up for these two months.
The ministry of road transport and highways, in August this year, finalised the plan for this year to award 126 highways projects spanning around 12,000 km.
However, with the sector not picking up, the government again went back to the drawing table and pushed back the targets in the plan by at least three to four months.
Union minister for road transport and highways, Kamal Nath. has already hinted at a delay of three months in achieving Work Plan I targets. He also talked of delays in order to make the model concession agreement for road projects more attractive to developers.
Among the shifted projects include those in Bihar as well as Jammu & Kashmir.
In case of Bihar, all the 12 projects lined up to be awarded by November this year — worth Rs 4,277 crore — have been shifted to February and March next year.
Similarly, in case of Jammu & Kashmir, projects worth Rs 9,629 crore, scheduled to have been awarded by September this year, have been pushed to February next year.
Speaking on the issue, Bihar road development minister Prem Kumar said, “The authority is not even taking care of the highways in the state that are under its jurisdiction. The Bihar government has spent a total of Rs 711.97 crore for the maintenance and upgrade of national highways. Also, Pipra-Raxaul, a stretch connecting Nepal—very important from tourism point of view—is in a bad shape and NHAI is not doing anything.”
The projects in Bihar and J&K are a part of National Highways Development Programme, phase II and Phase III, respectively.
Both the states have seen a number of ups and downs in tendering process. Till last fiscal, these were to be taken up on BoT (toll) basis. However, now NHAI has altered them to be offered as annuity projects.
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