Highway Halted

To get the big picture, here’s that inevitable comparison — while neighbour China built over 40,000 km of expressways in the past five years, India added just about 6,000 km.

Despite this, Surface Transport and Shipping Minister T R Baalu claims his government has fared better than the NDA. The minister claims 132 contracts have been awarded for 5,565 km in just 588 days as against the NDA’s 122 for 5,053 km in 1,257 days (mosly on the East-West, North-South corridor).

But former surface transport minister B C Khanduri ridicules this as just ‘‘good statistics.”

“How many new projects have they (UPA) announced? The projects that he (Baalu) claims to have been awarded during this period were started by the NDA government. It takes at least 25 months from the day you decide on a project to award of work.’’

He, in fact, has a piece of advice for his successor: ‘‘Instead of announcing award of contracts, concentrate on supervision, especially land acquisition. (This) is going to become a problem.’’

On paper, land still to be acquired for the GQ is not much. Out of 8,362 hectares, 7,852 hectares have been acquired—leaving just 6 per cent. But that’s where the signs of crawl appear first.

Consider these:

• Over the last six months, the government has just added 1 per cent.

• In Tamil Nadu, for instance, 33 per cent of the land still needs to be acquired. The state just managed to get 6 per cent in the last six months.

• This is behind the delays in the Kanchipuram-Poonamalee link.

• The Haveri-to-Sira stretch in Karnataka, being executed by UEM-Essar, an Indo-Malaysian joint venture, should have been completed by August 2004. The contractor has repeatedly got extensions and has been termed a ‘‘non-performer.’’

• After latest extension, the new deadline: June 2006. And NHAI officials aren’t quite sure they will meet it. Asked to explain the delay, an Essar spokesperson said land was not made available at the time when the contract was awarded and work had to continue in patches.

• Even on stretches where acquisition is complete, the project is limping. Officially, only the Mumbai-Delhi link of the GQ is complete and NHAI’s own records show that on January 1, 2006, 692 km of GQ is still ‘‘under implementation.’’

Land acquisition is not a big problem on the Delhi-Kolkata leg but bad contractors and law and order problems are. But NHAI is in a bind. NHAI member Nirmal Jit Singh told The Sunday Express that taking action against non-performing contractors could further delay completion as it could involve legal cases. ‘‘Therefore,’’ he said, ‘‘termination of contract is only the last option that NHAI can exercise especially when there’s no improvement in progress.’’

But that, in turn, will result in fresh bids and fresh delays.

Says L K Joshi, Secretary, Road Transport: ‘‘We have done everything possible from our end… if there is no improvement this time round, action will be taken.’’

Another factor that’s holding back the Ministry from taking action against contractors is the fact that a non-performer on one stretch may have been awarded a bonus for completing a project on another leg of the GQ.

One such contractor is Progressive Construction Ltd that is building the Sunakhala-Ganjam stretch on Kolkata-Chennai leg.

And then there is an incredible problem. Fourteen projects on the Kolkata-Chennai leg either did not have a cost-escalation clause built into their contract or the clause which was there was not adequate to compensate the promoter for the rise in steel prices. This ‘‘typographical’’ error was missed by both the promoters and the NHAI, resulting in delays.

As the project slows down, Secretary Joshi, who in his stint at the NHAI spent 15 days of the month on the road sorting out local problems on the Mumbai-Delhi leg, says: ‘‘Unless you have the junoon (passion), you cannot meet the deadline.’’

WHY THE ROADBLOCKS

Land acquisition: In as many as eight states, land yet to be acquired. In UP, it’s just 1 hectare (out of 471) but holds back completion.

New contractors: NHAI has terminated several contracts and has brought in new contractors. This has pushed deadlines, especially along the Delhi-Kolkata stretch to 2008.

Change in plans: NHAI changed initial plans in several areas to suit local needs.

Bad contracts: Some contracts on Kolkata-Chennai leg do not even have cost escalation factored in.