Yet another underachievement year for national highways

Till February 2013, government was able to construct and widen some 4,489 km of national highways

By March-end, the UPA government would have missed target for construction of national highways for four years in a row.

Till February 2013, the government was able to construct and widen some 4,489 km of national highways. Though in all likelihood, last year’s achievement of 5,013 km would be beaten but officials are not too sure whether 6,092 km of construction target would be met when 2012-13 ends in another week.

The construction completed this year so far entailed and expenditure of Rs 16,459 crore which is far less than Rs 28,394 crore incurred last year.

Among the various reasons attributed for the shortfall in meeting the target is the lesser number of projects awarded in the earlier years, slowing down of the economy and shortage of skilled and semi-skilled manpower, problems in land acquisition, shifting of utilities and environment and forest clearances.

So, it is not just the actual construction which is the worrying fact but also the slow pace in award of road projects.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the central agency responsible for the National Highways Development Project, has so far managed to award only 787 km projects this year.

Another 500 km of road projects are likely to be awarded later this week. Despite this, the project award record of the government would be far less than 5,000 km target fixed for 2012-13.

By contrast, in 2011-12, NHAI and the highways ministry together awarded 8,000 km of projects.

Since slower pace of project award comes with a lag effect, road construction activity may see a slowdown though officials claimed that the pace of road construction has improved to 12 km a day.

One of the reasons for the slower pace of project award this year has been the redesigning of the equipment, procurement and construction model contract.