First, he was put on a pedestal. Later, draped. Now, former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee will be brought down to erase any remnants of his party’s ‘India Shining’ campaign.Even before the Congress government was sworn in on May 22, orders were issued to remove the gantry on national highways that sport a beaming Vajpayee outlining the contours of his dream Golden Quadrilateral project.‘‘It has been decided that action may be taken to remove the overhead gantry signboards,’’ said a directive of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The order, which came out barely hours before Manmohan Singh was sworn in as Vajpayee’s successor, was sent to all project directors with the approval of NHAI chairman Santosh Nautiyal. Nautiyal was not available for comment.The NHAI chief has not yet suggested an alternative to replace Vajpayee. ‘‘Instructions with respect to the signboards to be hereafter displayed on the gantries will be intimated in due course,’’ said the order.The gantries were first erected on the Golden Quadrilateral through an order on December 10 last year. These 25 X 2.1 mt gantries, 5.5 mt above ground, have cost the NHAI an average Rs 8 lakh each.With a gantry each on either side of the road, at the start and end of each project as well as after every 30 km, it was later enlarged to cover the entire 6,720-km National Highways Development Project — this meant erecting nearly 600 gantries at a cost of approximately Rs 50 crore. Each photo sticker of Vajpayee pasted on the gantry alone cost Rs 3,500.Now, the NHAI is expected to spend Rs 3,000 on bringing each of the 600 gantries down. And to meet the expense, the Authority has directed that the costs be handled either through ‘‘project contingencies or as variation to existing civil works contract or through open/limited tender’’.The gantries made news in March when the EC asked NHAI to wrap them up since the model code of conduct did not allow display of hoardings erected at the cost of the national exchequer.Opposition too sought draping these gantries and said these ads not only violated the code of conduct but also robbed them of a level playing field.
