The Road Transport and Highways Ministry wants to expand the pool of eligible people who can be considered for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Chairman post. NHAI has not had a full time Chairman since September, 2010.

“We have received feedback from people that technocrats should also be considered for the post of NHAI Chairman. We have to discuss the issue with the Prime Minister before taking a final call on this,” according to Dr C.P. Joshi, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, here.

Dr Joshi was speaking to reporters after meeting the Turkish delegation which was evaluating business opportunities in the highways sector in India.

Dr Joshi cited the example of Mr E. Sreedharan, Managing Director, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, while saying that the selection committee should have wider option of candidates to choose from.

To enlarge the scope of people, who can be considered for the post of NHAI Chairman, the current rules have to be changed.

The current rules allow only secretaries to be considered for the post.

Since September, the NHAI has had a Chairman who was appointed on contract basis – first for three months, then for one more month – which ended in December 2010. Mr R.S. Gujral, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, holds the additional charge of NHAI Chairman since January 1.

When asked about problems faced by commuters on National Highways (NH), Dr Joshi asked more people to use the Web to provide feedback on the NH.

“NHAI is now on the Facebook. We invite the users to put in comments. This will help us identify problem areas,” he said.

Dr Joshi, who took over as the Union Minister in January, has set a target to award 7,300 km of national highways in 2011-12.

“The priority is to have more transparency in the sector. Using online tools such as e-tendering, e-procurement are some of the options that we want to implement at the earliest,” Dr Joshi said.

>mamuni@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics