At least a 100 bridges across the country are on the verge of collapse. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced this in lok Sabha on Thursday and said his Ministry last year launched a special project to create data of all bridges and culverts in the country as part of steps to avert mishaps.
The Minister said that out of the 1.6 lakh bridges where safety audit was conducted, 100 bridges in different parts of the country were found to be in critical condition. “100 bridges can collapse anytime and they need immediate attention,” he said during the Question Hour.
He also referred to a tragedy where two State-run buses and some private vehicles were swept away after a British-era bridge over the Savitri River in the Konkan region of Maharashtra collapsed last year.
Referring to the delay in works on various road projects, the Minister said this has been happening due to issues related to land acquisition, encroachment and environmental clearance. He said road projects worth Rs 3.85 lakh crore were delayed due to various reasons in the past and most of these issues were resolved and their works are in progress.
The Minister also said the Government has initiated action on the reports alleging payment of 1.18 million dollar bribes to the officials of the NHAI by an American firm. Gadkari said it was reported in media that M/S CDM Smith, through its employees and agents, and those of its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary (CDM India), had paid approximately USD 1.18 million in bribes to Government officials in India in exchange for highway construction supervision and design contracts.
The media report had emanated from the US Department of Justice, Criminal Division’s letter dated June 21, 2017 available on their official website. The Minister said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has compiled the list of all the consultancy assignments awarded to the said firm and its associates.
Gadkari said his Ministry has taken up the matter with the Ministry of External Affairs as well as the Indian Embassy in the USA to liaise with the US Department of Justice to obtain the information and records gathered by them during their inquiry.
He said the NHAI had debarred the said firm for a period of three months in 2015 from participating or engagement in the future bidding of NHAI projects because of deficiency in the services in one of the projects -- the Dholpur-Morena Section of NH-3.
“Similarly, in a lone assignment awarded to the said firm, the NHIDCl has debarred the said firm this year for a period of two years,” he said. The relevant part of the US Department’s letter says “From approximately 2011 until approximately 2015, employees of CDM Smith’s division responsible for India operations and CDM India illegally paid bribes to officials in the National Highways Authority of India, India’s State-owned highway management agency and an ‘instrumentality’ under the FCPA, in order to receive contracts from NHAI”.
“The bribes generally were 2-4 per cent of the contract price and paid through fraudulent subcontractors, who provided no actual services and understood that payments were meant to solely benefit the officials,” the letter had said.
Gadkari said the Central Vigilance Commission of India has constituted a special investigation team of three officers to investigate the matter and report back to the commission.