Thiruvananthapuram: The National Highway offices in Kannur, Kodungallur, Kozhikode, Moovattupuzha and NH north circle, Kozhikode, have come under the scanner of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. It says in a report that the execution of original works was initiated without prior approval of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) by treating them as Ordinary Repair (OR). This resulted in the rejection of reimbursement claim of Rs 68.10 crore which the state government had to bear from its own budgetary resources.
The construction of NH is entrusted to the state government on agency basis under the provisions of Article 258 of the Constitution for which nine percent agency charges are claimed from MoRTH. In fact, the role of the state government is confined mainly to maintaining, upgrading and improving the riding quality of the existing NHs and carrying out OR works annually. Usually, the state PWD undertakes the repair works and then get the expenditure reimbursed from MoRTH. The five NH offices had done 17 repair works during 2011-12 and 2014-15, but MoRTH rejected them citing that they were Original Works (OW) requiring prior sanction of MoRTH.
“The PWD failed to adhere to the guidelines of MoRTH while making the claim for reimbursement of expenditure incurred on the maintenance of NHs and consequently burdening the state exchequer to the extent of Rs 74.23 crore,” says the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
But a PWD official told DC that they had to initiate the maintenance work as the NH was destroyed in heavy rain.
“The then government had given administrative sanction to resurface the NH stretches hoping to get the amount reimbursed. But MoRTH rejected it and those days we could not avail of proper funding on time. But things have changed for the better now and during 2014-15, Rs 250 crore was sanctioned for NH repair,” said the official.
