Transport ministry data disputes Nitin Gadkari’s claim on roads built under UPA-2

NEW DELHI: Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari's claim of highway construction falling to 2 km per day during the last months of UPA and the NDA government pushing this to 14 km may have become popular in the BJP camp but road transport ministry data show that highway-building never went below 11 km per day during UPA-2.

Rather, construction by NHAI and other agencies on the ministry's behalf was the highest at 16 km per day during 2012-13 and the second maximum rate of building road was during 2009-10 at 14 km.

Now, with the government laying stress on building roads with increased budgetary allocation of Rs 42,000 crore, Gadkari has claimed that construction of roads during the Narendra Modi government will surpass the total length of highways built in previous years.

It was no different when it came to UPA-2, which claimed that it built maximum highway stretches during its rule. In October 2013, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said NDA had built 2,650 km of roads during five years of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government while the UPA built 9,570 km during the same period.



"Unfortunately, every political party has played politics with highway construction to make tall claims. This is because road construction is the most visible asset which people can see within 2-3 years. They have always preferred comparing apples with oranges," said a former top executive of NHAI.

He added that highway construction was less during Vajpayee regime since less stretches were taken up for construction. There was less fund availability and there were very few contractors to undertake works. "By the time UPA-1 came, NH length increased, institutional mechanism was in place to execute projects. Then came private investors and hence highway development gained momentum. So, there should be no comparison," the retired official said.

Moreover, while the performance of the ministry was earlier taken only in terms of NHAI's performance, from 2007-08 onwards, new flagship schemes such as SARDP-NE and LWE were also included in the ministry's performance. Later, it also started awarding works under NHDP and other larger projects following corridor approach under NH (original) and these also find place in performance of ministry.

Even some of the serving officials in the road ministry and NHAI said the pace of construction will increase in the next one decade irrespective of which party or alliance come to power as the NH network will expand further.

"Last year we awarded about 8,000 km and this year we will award another 10,000 km. If we repeat this for the third consecutive year, we will easily cross 20-25 km per day during 2017-18 and 2018-19," said a ministry official.