DS construction & NHAI under scanner for violation of norms

DS Construction and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) have come under the scanner for allegedly violating norms by proposing to set up a toll plaza in the municipal corporation limits of Chhattisgarh’s capital city.

The company had bagged the contract from NHAI for four-lane construction of 44 km stretch of National Highway-6 between Tatibandh (through ring road) and Arang in Raipur district. The estimated cost of the project was Rs 190 crore.

Under the project, a toll plaza was proposed to come up near Sarona, which comes under the limits of the Raipur Municipal Corporation. As the DS Construction started the work for the plaza, people thronged the site and lodged their protest. Following vehement protest, the construction work was stopped.

The state government also conceded that the company and the NHAI had violated the norms by selecting site for the toll plaza in the limits of urban area.

“When the agreement was signed for the project, the state government had categorically told the NHAI and DS Construction that the toll plaza would not be set up in the limits of Raipur Municipal Corporation,” Chhattisgarh’s urban development minister Rajesh Munat told Business Standard.

The company was asked to set up the plaza near Agriculture College that was away from the city limits, Munat said, adding that the toll plaza at Sarona was opposed earlier also as there was another toll plaza of the DS Construction in Kumhari, just three kilometres away. “It was not fair that people had to pay toll two times within a distance of three kms,” the minister added.

The Kumhari toll plaza of the company was constructed under the Raipur-Durg Expressway project. The 27 km expressway was constructed at a cost of Rs 95 crore on Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis.

The DS Construction however put the ball on NHAI’s court. “The Sarona site for toll plaza was decided by the NHAI,” company’s spokesperson Sunil Nayak said over telephone from Gurgaon office of the company. Since it was a BOT project, the company has to put a plaza for collecting toll, he added. The NHAI officials however could not be contacted.

Meanwhile, agitating people had said that they would not allow the construction of toll plaza in Sarona at any cost. “We will move to the court of law if the company starts the construction work as it is the violation of norms,” Mamta Sharma, Chairperson of Chhattisgarh Jankalyan Samiti, said.