On being ‘targeted’, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has conveyed his displeasure with the lopsided attitude adopted by certain officials responsible for responding to queries raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) with regard to the cost of construction of the Dwarka Expressway.
A political row has erupted on the CAG report that flagged the high cost of construction of the Dwarka Expressway with Opposition parties led by Congress attacking the Modi Government with allegations of corruption in the matter.
With series of audit reports related to road and highways constructions implicating the Road Transport Highways Ministry (MoRTH), Gadkari convened high-level review meetings on Thursday and Friday and directed the Ministry as well as the Central road making agency NHAI to fix the responsibility of this lapse on the part of senior concerned officials.
Sources said the Ministry had concluded that in the absence of an adequate response from the Ministry and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the CAG adopted an incorrect methodology for computing the cost of Dwarka Expressway.
Ministry officials also explained that the CAG has simply divided the total cost of construction of `91,000 crore (expenditure) under National Corridor Efficiency Programme with the project's entire length of 5,000 kilometres under development. They further said the CAG has itself noted that the cost of construction of `18.2 crore per kilometre does not include the cost norms for flyovers, ring roads, etc. They were of the view that the expressway in question has elevated roads, underpasses, tunnels and other components which were not part of the project.
The cost of `91,000 crore for 5,000 km under Bharatmala Phase-I project was finalised by the ministry on August 10, 2016, for the year 2016-17 to the extent possible.
Ministry has claimed infact the government saved over 12 per cent in construction cost against estimates in awarding contracts for the expressway and pointed out that the CAG findings that the cost was exorbitant are misplaced as the auditor did not factor in the actual cost. According to reports, the CAG had found that the NHAI decision to go for an elevated carriageway on the Haryana portion of the Dwarka Expressway pushed up the construction cost to `251 crore per kilometre from `18.2 crore per km estimated earlier. The audit report on the implementation of Phase-I of the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' highway projects, triggered a political row with the opposition parties alleging corruption in the process of awarding the project.
The ministry sources had explained that all four packages of Dwarka Expressway were put for tender at an average civil cost of `206.39 crore per kilometre but the contracts were finally awarded at a lower rate of `181.94 crore per km.
The average civil construction cost of the four packages of the expressway was 12 per cent lower than the estimates, they had said.