Plan Panel?s project meetings just waste of time, says NHAI

Differences between the Planning Commission and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI ) have surfaced yet again with NHAI chairman RP Singh disapproving pre-appraisal meetings conducted by the commission, calling it an exercise without value addition.

In a strongly worded letter to the road ministry, Singh called such meetings as ?repetitive… and a waste of time?.

Singh’s letter is the latest among several episodes of disagreements between the two sides. On several occasions, the road ministry had asked the Plan panel to stay as an adviser and not interfere in the day-to-day business of the road department.

NHAI requested the ministry to convey to the commission that any comments regarding build-operate-transfer style projects should be made to the ministry, thereby exempting the authority officials of such tardy meetings.

Some officials FE spoke to even blamed the Plan panel for the slowdown in the highway sector.

The authority blames the commission for tardy progress in building highways, saying such meetings lead to delays and keep senior NHAI and ministry officials too busy attending meetings.

“Advisor to the deputy chairman, Planning Commission, has been calling pre-appraisal meetings wherein he desires that officers of the rank of member and CGM attend the discussions. It has been seen in the past that during the pre-appraisal meetings, the observations of the Planning Commission are of repetitive nature even on the issues which have been settled in the past by the BKC Committee, etc, or at earlier PPPAC meetings,? Singh wrote to highways secretary Vijay Chhibber on January 3.

?There is no value-addition and the whole exercise of pre-appraisal by the Planning Commission is a waste of time.” Singh wrote.

Previous road transport and highways ministers like Kamal Nath, too, have described “the panel as an armchair adviser without any accountability and target”.

The pre-appraisal meetings, interestingly, have also been slammed earlier by member secretary, Planning Commission, itself at the forum of a PPPAC meeting in September 2011. Singh has quoted the member secretary saying that such meetings may not be encouraged as PPPAC is the forum for discussions and clearances with regard to PPP projects and all the matters be brought to the notice of PPPAC.

Chhibber is also understood to have brought the issue of time consuming pre-appraisal meetings to the notice of stakeholders involved in the PPPAC.

He has often told the committee that officials of the ministry of road transport and highways and NHAI spent considerable time in a series of pre-appraisal meeting in the Planning Commission, while a single pre-appraisal meeting with all the members of PPPAC may be convened to clarify issues, multiple pre-appraisal meetings for same projects, at the cost of delays in issue of appraisal notes by Planning Commission.

Talking to FE, officials of NHAI and MoRTH claimed that the Commission often raises objections unrelated to the projects being discussed. They even blame the Plan panel of the slowdown in the highway sector.

“At times we are doing just back and forth with the Commission which results in no step being taken forward. There are times when these meetings stretch for over a few months, which also has implications like revision of cost estimates and unnecessary changes in the alignments etc which are time consuming,” said an official.

If such meetings are done away with, highway projects can save up to 4-8 months and can be rolled out for bidding fast, said another official.

NHAI has requested the ministry to convey to the Commission that any comments with regards to build, operate and transfer style projects should be given to the ministry exempting the authority officials of such tardy meetings.