Quote:‘Babus delay highway projects’

pioneer.com

PNS | New Delhi

Ploy to push up costs, favour contractors: Secy



It’s finally official. A nexus between contractors and Government officials has been operating to deliberately delay highway projects and increase the cost incurred for the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP). And this with the full knowledge of top-level Government officials.



The first official admission of this nexus comes in a statement given by Secretary (Road Transport) Brahm Dutt before the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture. The parliamentary panel report has expressed shock over this “candid admission”.



Pulling up the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) over several delayed projects, the panel stated, “As regards corruption and unholy collusion between contractors and authorities, the Secretary was candid enough to accept the operation of such a nexus.”



The Secretary has said that the contractors, engineers and consultants join hands to create disputes. These disputes, in turn, delay the highway projects and push up costs.



Though Minister Kamal Nath has been trying to pin the blame on the model concessionaire agreement (MCA), Dutt told the panel that there was “nothing wrong with the contract, rules or regulations” and that the real problem related to their enforcement. Referring to a blacklist of contractors, he said there was a need to “pursue them and penalise them”.



Putting the onus on MPs, the Secretary appealed to the panel members to make a law so that the errant officers and corrupt contractors are punished. The report quotes him, “… it is these areas where you, as a member of the standing committee, must come out and pass some law and those fellows should be punished mercilessly… which is not happening.”



He added, “Even in land acquisition for NHAI projects, directors and contractors join hands and delay projects. The question is how we can improve the system.”



Interestingly, Dutt said he himself was part of the system. The report observes, “The Secretary submitted that he was not excluding himself.”

Quote:India, ranked below war-ravaged Ivory Coast and Sri Lanka for the quality of its infrastructure, spent 6.5 percent of its gross domestic product in 2009 on infrastructure, compared with about 11 percent by China, according to an Ernst & Young India report. Failure to lift investment may imperil Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s target of boosting economic growth to 10 percent needed to pull 828 million people living on less than $2 per day out of poverty.



The fund is a “good start but it won’t be enough,” said Prasanna Ananthasubramaniam, chief economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd. in Mumbai. “One fund cannot take all the risks of infrastructure projects.”



Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the nation’s Planning Commission, said in a report in March that India may need as much as $1 trillion in investment between 2012 and 2017.



The proposed fund will sell bonds and lend to projects, he said yesterday. India is ranked 89 out of 133 nations for its infrastructure, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.

Quote:India produces about 10 percent less electricity than it needs. The roads, which account for 65 percent of India’s cargo, are plagued by single lanes and irregular surfaces, slowing trucks to an average speed of about 20 kilometers per hour, said a 2009 study by Transport Corp. of India and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.



The average time taken by ships to unload and load at Indian ports is almost 96 hours, about 10 times longer than in Hong Kong, the government said in its latest annual economic survey.

Quote:The two projects are Rs.25-crore for Jamnagar underground sewer project and Rs.30-crore for Vajpayee urban development project



He said that Gujarat has urged the Government of India and Planning Commission to treat the unique project as a model for the entire country, but added that Gujarat would go ahead with the project, without waiting for the Centre's nod.



Mr. Modi said Rs.7,000-crore have been allocated for infrastructure development as part of Gujarat's Golden Jubilee Urban Development Programme this year. He listed 108 Emergency Service, ‘Mission Mangalam' as some of the other projects taken up in the right earnest.