After four years’ hype over building 20 km of highways a day, the UPA II Government has finally made it clear that this is just not possible.
“Our past experience says we can achieve this target only when we are in a position to award 7,000 km per year for three consecutive years. But, looking at this particular scenario, we are not able to award projects,” Road Transport and Highways Minister C.P. Joshi told PTI Economic Service.
He said at present builders, who were bidding for projects aggressively in the past, were not coming forward as they were facing funds crunch owing to various reasons.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has barely managed to award about 1,000 km of contracts so far this fiscal as against a target of 9,500 km.
The UPA Government in 2009 had unveiled its ambitious target of building 35,000 km of highways in five years, which translates into constructing 20 km of roads a day. So far, the target has not been achieved, and even the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, had expressed concern over it. The Ministry instead is now building about 12 km of roads a day.
The NHAI Chairman, Mr. R.P. Singh, has also said that achieving 20 km target was not possible and there was no point in rushing up with the projects. Raising equity was a major concern for awarding road projects of 10,000 km a year as it required Rs. 90,000-crore investment, of which one-third (Rs. 30,000 crores) should be private equity.
Mr. Joshi said: “Looking at the present scenario what he (Singh) said is correct. If next year things change, then certainly we can say that we are approaching 20 km per day.”
Private developers have not shown any big interest of late in bidding for highways projects.
Mr. Singh has also cautioned against going overboard on taking up all highway projects on BOT basis, saying the same is unsustainable in the changed economic scenario. “There is no point of having a target for award of BOT projects. We are making our efforts this year to address the disputes in the quickest possible manner and construction is hastened. As far as EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) projects are concerned, we are ready.”
He has also stressed the need to rationalise toll policy saying, “You can’t link the increase in toll with the annual inflation rate which is as high as 10 per cent.”
NHAI has been at the receiving end from various quarters, including the Planning Commission, government and Parliamentary panels, over not fulfilling targets.
A Parliamentary panel last year had said that “building 20 km of roads a day has become a distant dream for NHAI.” It also said that the Committee finds that NHAI was not in a position to complete any project.
Earlier, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has cited reasons like green hurdles, delay in land acquisitions and law and order problems behind not achieving the 20 km target.
NHAI, which is responsible for 76,000 km of highways, had awarded contracts for 7,957 km in the 2011-12 financial year.
Meanwhile, amidst about 350 highways projects stuck for green nods, NHAI has approached the apex court against the Environment Ministry seeking clarifications on the issue.
The development follows infrastructure major GMR announcing exit from the prestigious Rs. 7,500-crore Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project and 22 other projects of worth over Rs. 1,000 crores each facing delays in forest clearances after getting environment nod.
Another infrastructure major GVK Group also pulled out from the 330-km long Shivpuri-Dewas highway in Madhya Pradesh, citing delays in environmental clearances.
NHAI is seeking delinking of forest and environment clearances as was the practice earlier as the Ministry of Forests and Environment (MoEF) pleads that norms were in accordance with a Supreme Court judgment. The Supreme Court in 2011 had allowed cement major Lafarge to mine limestone in the forests of Meghalaya and had asked the Government to make an interim arrangement for forest clearance till a national environment regulator was set up.
Earlier, the NHAI Board too has approved the plan to approach the apex court in the matter, including seeking relief from getting a no-objection certificate from gram panchayats under the Forest Rights Act.
The Government has recently admitted that as many as 347 road projects, including those pertaining to the Border Road Organisation, mostly on build, operate and transfer (BOT) mode are awaiting green clearances.
It had said that green hurdles have delayed 21 major highways projects on crucial sections like Ahmedabad-Vadodara, Delhi-Agra and Lucknow-Raibareli. The delay is mainly on account of linking the environment clearance with forest clearance and condition of obtaining no-objection certificate from the gram sabha of the concerned village under the Forest Rights Act.
For road projects, the Environment Ministry gives environmental clearances only after forest clearances are obtained.
As per a Road Transport Ministry official, the Ministry and NHAI had drawn the attention of MoEF in this regard umpteen times but of no avail.
Among the pending projects are Panchkula-Haryana section on NH 73 in Punjab/Haryana, Patna-Buxar section on NH 30 and 84 in Bihar, Jhalawar to Biaora on NH 12 in Rajasthan, Ranchi-Rargaon section on NH 33 in Jharkhand, and Lucknow-Sultanpur section in Uttar Pradesh.
The Environment Minister, Mrs. Jayanthi Natarajan, had accused NHAI of submitting incomplete application on behalf of GMR for getting a green nod for the 555-km expressway project.
The GMR Group, which has announced termination of contract with NHAI, had won the expressway project in Western India through international competitive bidding at Rs. 636 crores annual premium for 26 years.
The Ministry had claimed that it had awarded 32 projects on premium in 2011-12, and the net present value (NPV) of the total premium offered (to the Ministry) is about Rs. 30,400 crores.
– PTI Economic Service