Flagging alleged attacks on engineers and contractors working in Punjab, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has warned CM Bhagwant Mann that the state-owned NHAI will have no other option but to cancel and terminate eight highway projects, with total length of 293 km costing `14,288 crore, if the law and order situation does not improve in state. Gadkari, in a letter to Mann, said he has been informed about two recent incidents on the Delhi-Katra Expressway project. “In one incident in Jalandhar district, the engineer of the contractor was brutally assaulted. Although an FIR has been registered in this regard, strong action is required to be taken,” Gadkari wrote in the letter dated August 9. The minister pointed out another incident in Ludhiana district, where the project camp of the contractor of Delhi-Katra Expressway was attacked by miscreants and also engineers were threatened that the project camp and staff will be burnt alive. However, FIR has still not been filed and miscreants have not been arrested despite written requests by NHAI officials, he said. Gadkari said: “If the situation does not improve, NHAI will have no other option but to cancel/terminate eight severely affected projects with total length of 293 km costing `14,288 crore. These are mainly greenfield corridors and even cancelling one package will render the entire corridor useless”. The minister also attached photos of assault in his communication to the CM. This comes days after Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma Wednesday directed state police chief Gaurav Yadav to lodge an FIR against people allegedly threatening to burn alive the contractors and the NHAI officials constructing the four-lane greenfield Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway. The NHAI is constructing the expressway from junction with Ludhiana-Moga road near Mullanpur Dakha to junction with Jalandhar-Moga road near Kang Sahibu village. Verma's directive to the DGP had come after the NHAI demanded “immediate necessary police protection to the contractor, and staff at the project camp”.
