The Hindu Business Line : CAG pulls up NHAI for delay in Golden Quadrilateral project

The CAG report said that there was no corporate plan to implement such a large project and deficient planning and inefficient contract management by the design and project consultants led to underperformance in achieving the target.

New Delhi , May 11

THE showpiece of the erstwhile NDA Government, the Rs 58,000-crore National Highways Development Project (NHDP) did not do much to bolster the corridor concept as envisaged originally with the overall performance of Phase I at 29 per cent, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said in a report.

In his report on commercial public sector undertakings and with reference to NHDP of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), tabled in Parliament, the CAG said the Authority completed only 1,846 km in terms of completed stretches of the target of 6,359 km by the scheduled date of June 2004.

Largely, Phase I comprised the completion of Golden Quadrilateral linking Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai, Chennai-Kolkata and Kolkata-Delhi. The CAG report said that there was no corporate plan to implement such a large project and deficient planning and inefficient contract management by the design and project consultants led to underperformance in achieving the target.

The adverse impact of the significant underperformance resulted in unrealised expected benefit of free flow of traffic on these routes.

Besides, NHAI also lost a chance to generate toll revenue of at least Rs 560 crore due to the delay in the completion of the highways. "The road users also lost potential economy in vehicle operating cost of about Rs 4,300 crore over the period of delay," the CAG observed.

NHAI was slow to introduce tolling on the completed portions of the road and lost about Rs 42 crore due to delayed notifications.

Stating that NHAI did not standardise its procedures and contract documents, the report said the inconsistencies and infirmities in the contract conditions led to contractual complications, overpayments and delay. Criticising the NHAI for not ensuring enforcement of contract provisions for quality assurance and project management, it said this led to execution of "sub-standard works in seven stretches test checked for quality of 32 stretches examined in audit".

Moreover, NHAI took up contracts for 20 works valued at Rs 779 crore without detailed project reports (DPRs). There were also wide variations ranging from 12.26 per cent to 86.82 per cent between the awarded cost and executed cost in respect of nine stretches indicating deficiencies in DPRs.

The report assailed the NHAI for not standardising the length of stretches for award of contacts to facilitate cost comparison for ward and execution of work; nor did it devise any effective cost control mechanism as an alternative. This resulted in variation in cost per km of contiguous stretches from Rs 1.86 crore to Rs 4.20 crore per km.

In the light of the shortcomings highlighted by the audit, the report suggests the NHAI to strengthen its planning regime and follow-up mechanism with various agencies to avert bottlenecks such as land acquisition, tree cutting and shifting of utilities.

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CAG pulls up NHAI for delay in Golden Quadrilateral project