Private road developers have asked the government to streamline the functioning of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the nodal agency for award of highway building contracts, to ensure timely implementation of projects. They have asked the road transport and highways ministry to appoint separate NHAI members to handle the task of procurement, dispute resolution and legal issues. Currently, these tasks are performed by member (administration).
At a meeting with road transport and highways minister C P Joshi on Monday, the companies also asked for appointment of NHAI officials in states to liaison with the governments there. ?We have demanded liaison officers in states as project managers currently deputed their spend almost 80% of their time in coordinating with state governments on land acquisitions and logistics. On the contrary, their sole responsibility should be to monitor the progress of the project,? a senior official of a company, who was present during the meeting, said.
The government had decided to restructure NHAI in 2007 but it has remained unimplemented till date.
Monday’s meeting was called to seek suggestions from the industry on what structure should be given to NHAI, which does not have a full-time chairman since the beginning of 2011. This was after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Joshi on June 8 to restructure NHAI expeditiously. ?Restructuring of NHAI should be implemented quickly, and all vacant posts need to be filled up,? Singh had said.
NHAI’s restructuring is important to implement previous road minister Kamal Nath’s ambitious target of building 20-km road a day. Going at the current pace of highway development at 9.09 km a day (as on December 31, 2010), Joshi expects the target to be met only by 2014.