NEW DELHI, Feb 18: In a bid to create a single centralised entity to undertake massive road projects, surface transport ministry has proposed merger of Directorate General of Road Development and National Highway Authority (NHAI).The move to merge the wings of the ministry is to structure a single agency for executing national highway projects instead of having two agencies doing almost the same job, ministry sources said.At present NHAI is involved in constructing the golden quadrilateral linking four metros and the integrated road project, while remaining national highway projects are executed by DG (RD) through state public works departments (PWD). Surface transport minister M Thambi Durai is believed to have met finance minister Yashwant Sinha to push through the proposal.The sources said the ministry was finding it difficult to get work done through state PWDs as it resulted in operational problems like delay and cost overruns.Moreover, the regional offices of DG (RD) did not have any realpower and exercised no control over state PWDs. Most of the states were diverting funds earmarked for national highways for other purposes, like building social infrastructure including schools, the sources said.Attempts by the ministry to reimburse the money after the states constructed the roads have also come unstuck as some of them have expressed inability to meet the construction cost upfront, the sources said. Besides, development and maintenance of national highways, DG (RD) also administers central road fund, which is used for development of roads in the states.The sources said the ministry was working on amendments to the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988, to bring about the merger. The ministry was also thinking in terms of appointing foreign supervisory consultants as getting the work done through state PWDs was proving to be difficult.After the merger the supervision would be done by NHAI through foreign consultants, sources said. Sources said executing projects independentof state PWDs might pose some problem in acquiring land as it was a state subject.They said the ministry would give top priority to those states which make the land available for national highways. The government is planning to construct additional stretches of national highways to take the total length to 50,000 km from the present 38,500 km.
