Jharkhand High Court on Monday directed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to finalise the tender process of three patches for construction of Ranchi-TATA National Highway 33 by February 14.
The division bench comprising Justices Aparesh Kumar Singh and Anil Kumar Choudhary passed the order while hearing the PIL (WP PIL 3503/2014). The court on its own motion V/S Union of India through its secretary Ministry of Road Transport and Highways passed the order.
Government lawyer Rajiv Ranjan Mishra who appeared in the case said the court observed that the process must not be hindered as it is related to a very important road.
The court also asked why the date of opening the tender bid was postponed to January 23. The court also directed CBI lawyer Rajiv Sinha to submit an affidavit on status of CBI inquiry that has been ordered in the case by the court earlier.
On the issue of compliance of conditions for stage-I clearance for forest land, the court asked officials of forest and the NHAI departments to sort out the issue. It may be stated here forest department had claimed that NHAI was not complying with conditions required for Stage-I clearance.