Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday hoped to resolve a least 19 stuck highway projects worth `40,000 crore by Friday. Gadkari anticipated that if any problem reoccurs, then the PMO and the Finance Ministry will look for an “out of the box” solution.
“As many as 19 projects entailing a capital investment of `40,000 crore are stuck for long and we are expecting a solution by Thursday night,” Gadkari said, while addressing the media after jointly chairing a meeting of bankers and developers of these stuck projects with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Gadkari informed the Government has already terminated 41 projects.
As many as 384 projects were stuck for the last 10 years due to various issues such as land acquisition, forest and environment clearances, railway over-bridge problems, utility shifting, litigations, delayed decisions and financial problems, he said adding that his government has “terminated 41 projects and solved problems related to all these projects barring 19”.
Gadkari said the Government had decided that “under no circumstances any project should be pending before January 31 and I expect the problems to be solved before night”. These projects include key National Highways in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Karna-taka, Madhya Pradesh, Maha-rashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
The stuck projects belong to players like larsen & Toubro, HCC, Gammon, Madhucon, Soma and Essel Infra, among others, while the list of lenders includes top names like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of India.
“There are only 19 projects where no solution could be found out. Secretary, bankers and contractors sat today ... Under no circumstances any project should be pending. Out of the box solution will be arrived at by the Finance Ministry and PMO if any issue remains unresolved today,” Gadkari said.
Seeking bankers and developers cooperation to translate “highways building into a success story”, Gadkari said atmosphere is positive and the Ministry will launch a website for cooperation, coordination and communication where bankers and developers could post their problems, to be reviewed by Highways Secretary personally.
Gadkari said Finance Minister Jaitley’s presence in the meeting has instilled confidence among the bankers and now the projects would be fast-tracked.