Determined to push the highway sector in top gear, the NDA Government has set an ambitious target of building 30 kilometres of roads a day by the end of two years.
"Road construction has gone down to three kms a day. Highway projects worth about Rs 60,000 crore are stuck, mainly due to delay over land acquisition and environment and forest clearances," Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari told reporters here.
"We have managed to find solutions for projects to the tune of Rs 35,000-Rs 45,000 crores. These stalled projects would be up and running in the next three months. We have fast-tracked the processes of clearances," Gadkari said.
The Minister said, three months onwards, forest clearance, which is a big impediment and slows down road construction, will no longer be required. "The Government has decided to import truck moulding machines from Canada, which can uproot and replant trees from forest tracks to a fresh location. We will only need to give an affidavit to the forest department on the number of trees transplanted," he said.
Gadkari said the Government will build all new roads by awarding Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts as against Public-Private Partnership contracts followed by the UPA Government.
"We will give the money to the contractors and ask them to build the roads or bridges for us within the deadline. We have also decided that before giving out work orders, we shall have acquired 90 per cent of the land for construction and all required clearances are in place to avoid any delays," he said.
Gadkari said that the Government has already formed a financial corporation to fund the projects. "The corporation has started work to get finance at low interest rates. We will be in a position to fund all our existing projects within a three-month time frame," he said.For Jammu and Kashmir, the Government has allotted projects worth Rs 20, 000 crores, which includes two tunnels and two and four-lane highways for connectivity in ladakh and leh regions.
"We have set a target of 2.5years for completing these projects. We are also very positive that this will give a boost to the tourism in the region," said Gadkari. For the north-east, the Government has sanctioned a Rs 15, 000 crore package. The Minister said that talks are on with the State Governments to remove obstacles and improve pace of road building in the region, which has seen construction as low as 0.52 kms of per day for the last three years.
The Government has also sanctioned Rs 6,000 crores for building a new road network of National Highways in the flashfloods ravaged Uttarakhand. For Himachal Pradesh, the Minister has given go-ahead for building separate back and forth routes between Kullu and Manali.The previous Government set a 20-km per day target in 2009. However, less than half that goal was achieved due to hurdles such as delays in getting environment and forest clearances and land acquisition.
Gadkari, who also holds the shipping, rural development, panchayati raj and drinking water and sanitation portfolios, said he will head a group that will review the progress of the civil aviation and railway ministries, along with roads and ports, on a monthly basis.Aggrieved with the performance of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Gadkari said the entity will now be given fresh work only after the Government completes its performance audit.
"The BRO was given the task considering they would perform under difficult situations. I am not satisfied with their work, and therefore I have asked the Road secretary to undertake their audit," Gadkari said.The Road Ministry has also taken back the highway construction projects in Chhattisgarh from BRO. These projects have been handed over to the State Government now.
"The State Government has been asked to deploy local contractors for constructing smaller patches of land, especially in the Naxal-affected areas," he said. Gadkari added that the Central Government has asked all the States to encourage local contractors for work within the region.The Minister said he has written to several State Governments, including West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, seeking their co-operation in highway construction.