New Delhi: Almost 44% of nationwide freeway tasks, every value no less than ₹150 crore, throughout 32 states and union territories (UT), had been beneath development as of March 2024, however are dealing with delays, union minister for highway transport and highways Nitin Gadkari stated on Wednesday.
In response to a query in Rajya Sabha from Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Gadkari revealed that 419 out of 952 such tasks had missed their unique completion deadlines by March 2024, with delays at varied phases of undertaking completion.
He stated Maharashtra had the very best variety of delayed tasks, with 59 out of 101 tasks working not on time. Nonetheless, proportionally, northeastern states and UTs are the worst affected. These numbers don’t embrace tasks thought of for termination or foreclosures.
Gadkari attributed the delays to a spread of points, together with land acquisition bottlenecks, delays in acquiring statutory clearances and permissions, utility shifting, encroachment removing, and legislation and order points.
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He additionally talked about elements like poor contractor efficiency and power majeure occasions, such because the pandemic, heavy rainfall, floods, cyclones, landslides, and avalanches, which contributed to some delays.
For delays not attributable to contractors, the federal government pays value escalation as per the outlined system, based mostly on the ultimate worth of value escalation decided after the undertaking’s completion and the settlement of payments. He added that contractors are penalised if the delay is their fault.
Whereas Gadkari didn’t present particular figures on value overruns linked to those delays, he clarified that not all delays end in further prices.
He additional stated that the ministry is working with state governments and different stakeholders to streamline land acquisition, environmental clearance, and utility shifting processes.
Responding to a different question from Janata Dal (United), JD(U), lawmaker Sanjay Kumar Jha from Bihar, Gadkari stated that the ministry had blacklisted 29 consulting corporations and 516 people for misrepresentation of info or violation of contractual obligations in making ready detailed undertaking stories with main deficiencies.
