Gujarat Opposition questions delay in Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway project involving firms from Ukraine, China

Those who asked a starred question about the project included Congress’ Geniben Thakor, Vimalbhai Chudasma, Tushar Chaudhary, Amit Chavda, Shailesh Parmar and Arjun Modhwadia and AAP’s Hemant Khava. Some MLAs alleged that the private firms had secured the contracts by submitting “forged” documents.

A section of the National Highway 27 near Rajkot. (Express File Photo)

The state government on Friday informed the Assembly that the Rs 3,000-crore project has been delayed by three years. In a written reply to questions asked by Chudasama, the CM said that Jiangxi Construction Engineering (Group) Corporation Limited of China and State Construction Integrated Works of Administrative Department of Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine, are part of two joint ventures that have been awarded three out of five packages of widening NH 47 and NH 27 to six lanes.

Both these firms are owned the Chinese and Ukrainian governments, respectively. These got contracts after forming Jvs with private Indian firms.

The Ukrainian firm is part of a JV, which comprises Madhav Infra Projects Limited in Vadodara and MS Khurana Engineering Limited. The Chinese firm is part of a JV with Varaha Infra Limited of Jodhpur.

While the JV of the Chinese firm and Varaha has been awarded packages 3 and 5 of the highway widening project, the JV involving the Ukrainian firm has been awarded package 1. Packages 2 and 4 have been awarded to Sadbhavna Engineering Limited of Ahmedabad.

Patel, in his written reply to the House, said there was no corruption. “The work was awarded as per rules after evaluating tenders,” he said, adding that since there were no “irregularities”, there was no question of taking action against any contractor.

Work on widening the two highways had begun in January 2018. The original deadline was January 2020. However, despite multiple extension of deadlines, the work remains incomplete.

Maintainng that the deadline was revised to December 31, 2023, the CM said that 90 per cent of the physical work was completed by then. He informed that while the initial estimated project cost was Rs 2223.50 crore, additional Rs 97.81 crore has since been paid for the work.

Incidentally, amid border standoff between India and China, India had cracked down on Chinese firms and announced that they will not be allowed to participate in new bids for highway construction.

Officials of R&B department said that the contracts for widening NH 47 and NH 27 were awarded in 2017 and that present geo-political scenario had nothing to do with the delays.

“Tenders for these works were awarded to these firms much before the Union government’s decision with respect to Chinese firms and a war broke out between Russia and Ukraine. Due diligence was done before awarding contracts to these JVs and everything is on record,” a senior official said.

“The project got off to a slow start due to issues in land acquisition. Then came the Covid-19 pandemic. These are two major reasons of delay in completion of the project,” the official added.

Officials said the project is likely to be completed by March this year. “Of the total length of 201 km under the project, around 190 km has been widened into six lanes. Overall, around 90 per cent of work has been completed… Work is still in progress on some bridges. We are hoping that the remaining work will be completed by March,” the official said.

Addressing mediapersons after the Budget Session on Friday, Congress’ Thakor said: “Owing to the fewer members (in Opposition), to ensure that the question is taken on priority, we decided that several of us will ask the same question.”