Heads to roll if faulty road contracts detected in NHIDCL projects: MD Anand Kumar

NEW DELHI: State-run NHIDCL today said it is committed to overhaul highways infrastructure and it would not hesitate from taking stringent action against officials or developers found guilty of framing defective contracts.
National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL), formed to fast-track building of highways, is handling projects worth Rs 50,000 crore and has plans to award about Rs 48,000 crore projects in the next fiscal.

"Heads would roll if any contract is found defective. It will be a criminal offence. We are not going to tolerate defective DPRs (detailed project reports) and are making procedural changes that the DPR consultant is associated with the project till it takes," Managing Director, NHIDCL, Anand Kumar said addressing a highways summit by PHD Chamber here.

Kumar said the corporation has initiated many initiatives and a company which relied on e-governance with full transparency and would ensure no corruption.

"Road infrastructure is key to economic development and we are committed to do our share. To fast-track projects we will revisit the rules of the game and ensure faster implementation besides participation from local stake-holders."

He said as per the instructions from Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, small contracts of Rs 50 crore to 100 crore were being awarded in the North Eastern region to ensure capacity building of the local contractors besides stakeholders participation in the development of the region.

He said, in the long-term, NHIDCL would look at raising bonds besides other innovative ways of funding.

Kumar also launched a joint knowledge Report by PHDCCI & CRISIL on 'Challenges & Way forward for the Roads & Highways sector' which highlighted problems in land acquisition, green clearances and financing constraints among other things.

The report said as per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy database, "highways and road projects worth Rs 1 trillion have been facing delays or have not taken off due to land acquisition related issues. The database lists 66 such projects. Of these, 44 projects worth Rs 936 billion are promoted by NHAI."

It added, "As per CRISIL research, project returns for highway projects were in the range of 8-14 per cent in March 2014- less than half the estimated 22-26 per cent. based on NHAI's traffic and cost estimates."

Delayed projects are seeing an average cost overrun of 23 per cent, as estimated by the report based on an analysis of 15 highway stretches.