Road construction performance hit its dismal low in July this year when the Government, by its own admission, failed to add even a single kilometre to its existing highway network. “Not a single kilometre of highway network could be added in July which is not good but the Ministry has resolved to build 30 km of highways a day in the next two years,” said Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Roads, Transport, Highways and Shipping. Gadkari was addressing the Indian Road Congress meeting on Tuesday.
“We have to pick up speed in the next two years to reach the set target of building a daily average of 30 kilometres per day. At the moment the sector is going through a very rough patch and we are trying our best to find solutions,” he said.
Road construction was beginning to show weaknesses even under the outgoing UPA’s regime, when the last quarter report card showed an average construction rate of 1.5 km a day. In 2012-13, the daily average construction pace at the year end stood at 5.63 km.
Admitting that the roads and highways sector has been going through a difficult phase, Gadkari said 21 out of 51 road widening projects had to be dropped in the absence of any bidder. “Developers have given up projects worth about Rs 50,000 crore in the absence of lack of land acquisition and delays in forest and environmental clearances. We can’t blame them completely, as they must be suffering huge losses on account of continued delays in getting mandatory clearances before starting their projects,” said Gadkari.
As many as 189 projects with a cost of Rs 1,80,000 crore have been stuck due to problems in land acquisition, delays in forest and environment clearances, and hurdles in rail overbridge.
Gadkari said that the road sector alone accounts for Rs 2,40,000 crore Non-Performing Assets by banks, next only to power sector which has Rs 3,60,000 crore NPAs.
He added that most hurdles will be removed and work will start on the stuck projects by August end. “We have already got clearances from the transfer of defence land to build roads in the strategic areas. Even 70-80 per cent of clearances have come through for the forest and environment departments as several notifications have been brought out,” said Gadkari.
“The railways have also been given a green signal for about 40 projects. We are sure to be able to bring the sector back on track in the next two years,” he said.