Construction rate 1.5 km a day against target of 21.10 km per day
Flying in the face of the Government’s tall claims, its own latest statistics have revealed that road construction target has touched a new low this quarter. The figures show an abysmally dismal average construction rate of 1.5 km a day as against the original target of 21.10 km per day.
In the first quarter of the current fiscal, the Ministry of Roads had started out with a daily target of constructing 13.14 km to build 6,329 kilometre of the National Highways. On the whole, the construction pace is worse than last fiscal year, when the daily average at the year end stood at 5.63 km.
“Figures from the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) or those from National Highways Development Authority don’t say the entire story. There is a lot more work happening, which don’t figure in these numbers,” claimed an official from the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
“For the year 2013-14, the Ministry had planned to build about 6329 km of the National Highways along with construction/rehabilitation of 100 bridges and four by-passes as standalone projects at an estimated cost of `23, 300 crores. Work has been happening at all fronts, although they may not be at our desired pace,” said an official.
The official said that the Ministry had also taken up road development projects in the North Eastern Region involving widening of 10,141 km of National Highways besides development of 5477 km roads (1126 km National Highways and 4351 km of state roads) in eight Naxal affected states.
“Given the pace of construction, we are presently unable to meet our day targets but that certainly does not mean that work is not happening,” he said. According to data with the Ministry, during the last financial year, 5,732 km highway was constructed, which also failed to meet the set targets.
“Availability of lands has been our greatest challenge. The weather and road damage in the higher ranges of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, have also diverted our energies to those roads. The Ministry has been trying to achieve the targets and we might do better in the next quarter,” said the official.
The data from the ministry shows that under the NHDP, till October less than 800 km was constructed. The officials in the ministry and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) were hopeful that the pace of road building would improve after the monsoon but it only worsened.
Seeing the tardy development of road infrastructure, the government had earlier announced a slew of relaxations for builders, with included easier environment and forest department clearances.