Road, transport and highways minister Kamal Nath has directed all project consultants involved in highway development to pull up their socks and facilitate faster award of contracts under National Highways Development Programme?s (NHDP) phase 4 that encompasses four-laning of over 20,000 km of highways with paved shoulders.
The instructions were given in a meeting with 28 consultants and officials from the ministry and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) recently. NHDP projects are to be implemented by NHAI, road ministry, state public work departments (PWDs) and border roads organisation.
The development assumes importance as the government has not been able to progress much on phase 4 of NHDP. As of now, feasibility study has been completed for stretches totaling 3,465 km, while the exercise is on for 4,175 km. Bids are under evaluation for just 206 km. ?These roads are mostly feeder roads connecting to golden quadrilateral and north south-east west corridors and is likely to benefit small towns. Therefore, it figures among the priorities of the ministry. Unfortunately, the progress has been limited to preparation of feasibility studies and detailed project report,? a senior official in the ministry told FE.
?Now the minister wants that the projects should be awarded latest by March 2011. Once awarded, the projects would take another two years to complete on an average,? another official said.
A senior official of NHAI said the authority has awarded contract for preparing detailed project reports (DPRs) for all the stretches but 1,500 km. ?For the remaining stretch, DPR will be awarded by the middle of next month,? he said.
