The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) on Thursday (July 20) informed that it is currently handling 202 National Highway projects covering a total length of 6,270 kilometres with an estimated cost of Rs 79,789 crore.
The Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, Nitin Gadkari said that these projects have construction periods ranging from 18-30 months from the appointed date.
Out of the 202 National Highway projects, 42 NH projects, spanning 474 kilometres and valued at Rs 10,992 crore, are in the bidding stage. Moreover, 11 National Highway projects, covering 245 kilometres and costing around Rs 3,816 crore, are about to reach the stage of declaration of the appointed date in Maharashtra.
Gadkari made these statements in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
‘Govt closely monitoring construction of National Highways’
The Union Minister also added that the authorities are closely monitoring the construction of National Highways in the country. Gadkari also highlighted that periodic reviews are held at various levels to resolve issues and expedite the progress of all National Highway projects.
The Ministry also added that a time limit of 2-3 years is generally kept for the completion of new NH projects. However, sometimes the construction works on National Highways are delayed due to multiple reasons like delays in the fulfilment of government’s condition precedent like various clearances, utility shifting, delays in land acquisition, delays on the part of contractors/ concessionaire, including cash flow issues and others.
“Four NH projects passing through Dhenkanal district in Odisha are delayed, mainly due to delay in land acquisition, forest clearance and slow performance of the contractor. As per the revised schedule, the target of completion of these projects is March 2024,” Gadkari said.
The amount of cost escalation in these projects for the delay in completion work has not been finalised, Gadkari said.