Finance and road ministries at loggerheads over NH widening

The ministries of finance and road transport & highways are caught in a tussle over the four-laning of a section of National Highway 69 in Nagpur.

The highway is adjacent to the National Academy of Direct Taxes — the apex institution for training officers and staff of the Income-Tax Department. The finance ministry has written to the roads ministry to review its plan to widen the highway at that particular section and look for other alternative.

The finance ministry has suggested construction of a flyover on that stretch as one of the options. It has argued that four-laning of the highway could cause damage to the premises of the academy, considered one of the finest campuses to live in.

“Four-laning will affect the existing structure. The boundary wall on the road, about half-a-kilometre-long, will have to be demolished to widen the road. The administrative block of the academy is near that wall. One of the solutions is to make a flyover there,” said a finance ministry official.

The academy, spread over 60 acres of land on Chhindwara Road in Byramji Town of Nagpur, has six lecture halls, seminar halls, conference rooms, computer labs, an auditorium, two hostels, guest house, officers’ mess, library, sports complex, swimming pool and lawns.

“The basketball court is near the road. It may have to be relocated if the road is widened. The administrative block is also very near to the road… Even building a flyover is not a foolproof solution because hostellers will lose their privacy,” said another ministry official.

The academy was set up in 1981. Its primary task is to impart induction training to directly recruited Indian Revenue Service officers. The academy imparts training to officers and staff of the Income-tax Department in coordination with its five regional training institutes located at Bangalore, Kolkata, Hazaribagh, Lucknow and Mumbai.

Apart from imparting training in the fields of taxation, accountancy, law and management to the officers of the Income-Tax Department, it also trains senior officers of various other central government departments and nominees of foreign countries under United Nations Development Programme and Colombo Plan.

It designs and conducts courses for tax administrators from other countries also.