It began as one of the most prestigious initiatives of the NDA government. Today, the Golden Quadrilateral highway project has been found dotted with irregularities and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which placed it under the scanner, has ordered corrections. The CVC began its scrutiny shortly before the Lok Sabha poll results were announced and came across irregularities in 18 GQ projects — primarily, over-dependence on private consultants, use of low-grade material and deviations from project specifications. These lapses were taken up during a meeting between the CVC and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), in the first week of May, before the latter listed the remedial measures adopted by them. The meeting was attended, among others, by NHAI chairman Santosh Nautiyal. Former Surface Transport and Highways Minister, K C Khanduri, admitted there had been some serious bottlenecks in many of the 90 GQ projects he was monitoring. ‘‘We were working on a very tight schedule and that is why some short-cuts had to be taken,’’ he told The Indian Express. ‘‘Since the NHAI did not have the infrastructure, we had to depend a lot on the consultants we had appointed. Though we did try to minimise them, there were bottlenecks and some instances of misuse.’’ The former minister added that besides over-dependence on private consultants, the most serious problem faced was land acquisition: ‘‘The severe problem of land acquisition came up in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. I was personally in touch with the chief ministers on this.’’ The irregularities were detected during spot inspections and audits carried out by the CVC’s Chief Technical Examiner (CTE) over a three-year period. The checks were conducted along different GQ stretches with the Aurangabad-Barachatti project added to the list after The Indian Express broke the Satyendra Dubey story. Central Vigilance Commissioner P Shankar told The Indian Express that while details of the CTE’s inspections were secret, he was satisfied with the corrective measures taken by the NHAI. ‘‘I am happy with what the NHAI has done on the basis of the findings of the CTE. The spot inspections on GQ projects had revealed systemic failures and several corrective measures have been taken,’’ he said. The CVC would be publishing details of the irregularities and action taken on their findings in its next annual report. The CVC teams found a pattern of contractual provisions being violated by consultants and usage of low-quality material. Parts of the highway infrastructure were damaged and, at some places, had even caved in.
