Gujarat: Work on 14 National Highway stretches hit by cost, time overruns

The NH-8E highway runs along the coast and links the pilgrim centres of Dwarka and Somnath with Bhavnagar and Surendranagar. The four-laning work of the Una-Kodinar section of the highway began in February 2017 and was supposed to be completed in August 2019. Now, the scheduled completion has been pushed to December this year.

Similarly, the adjacent stretch of the same highway connecting Kodinar to Veraval and the temple town of Somnath has been pending for 29 months. This stretch, which was due to be completed in July 2020, is now targetted to be completed by December. While “land acquisition issues, slow disbursement of compensation by state authorities and Covid-19” have been cited as reasons for the delay on the Una-Kodinar stretch, “non-performance of the contractor” has been delaying the Kodinar-Veraval stretch of NH-8E.

Works on the stretches of NH-8E between Talaja, Mahuva and Kagvadar also remain incomplete. “Majority of the delays are due to the Covid pandemic,” an official from NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) told The Indian Express.

Congress MLA Vimal Chudasama from the Gir-Somnath constituency that houses the famous Somnath temple recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to visit Somnath by road and take the coastal highway from Bhavnagar while doing so. “Since the last four-and-a-half years, I have personally written letters to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and other officials to get the highway repaired. The highway has literally vanished between Kodinar and Veraval and bridges on Hiren river on this stretch are in a bad shape. So, as a final resort, I wrote to PM Modi and asked him to take the highway from Bhavnagar to visit Somnath where he is the chairman of the Somnath Trust. This will give him a first-hand experience of the condition the road is in,” Chudasama said.

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Apart from this, the Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway has also seen cost and time overruns, as per the Rajya Sabha data. Work on stretches of this crucial expressway has been delayed by 38-19 months. The expressway stretch  between Ankleshwar and Kim is delayed by 38 months, while that between Vadodara to Padra and from Padra to Sanpa and Sanpa to Manubar is delayed by 18-20 months citing “Covid-19” delays.

The six-laning of the National Highway stretch between Shamlaji and Chiloda is another stretch that has been delayed by 22 months. It is expected to be completed by October.