Ratings may pave way for contractors to bag NHAI projects

To bring efficiency in the system, the road transport ministry is looking at rating road contractors and awarding projects according to the ratings. This matter will be taken up in a meeting of Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath and senior officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) tomorrow.

“Rating will help us select contractors for mega projects and ensure representation of only capable and serious contractors,” said a senior NHAI official, who did not want to be identified.

Issues related to non-performing contractors will also be discussed in the meeting. Nath wants all consistently non-performing contractors to be blacklisted, the official added.

Issues like setting up a call centre to record the complaints of road users and guide people would also be discussed on Saturday.

“There could be a toll-free number so that aggrieved persons can contact us on issues related to the highways. Setting up of trauma centres and helipads have already been included, as proposals to provide immediate trauma care to the road accident victims,” added another NHAI official, who did not want to be identified.

At a review meeting on Friday, Nath asked authority officials to push the land acquisition process for the work Plan-I.

“There was strict instruction to have 80 per cent of the land available with us, so that the financial closure of the projects is not hampered because of non-availability of land,” said an official present in the meeting.

Meanwhile, road development in the last financial year reached just over 8 km a day. “We built around 3,000 km of roads in 2009-10, which was an improvement over 2,200 km built in 2008-09,” said one of the officials quoted above.

Recently, the minister claimed he had achieved road building at 13 km a day and would achieve 20 km a day by June this year.

Nath in June last year set a target of building roads at a pace of 20 km a day from 4 km a day. To make this happen, the ministry formed a committee headed by Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi to find ways to expedite road building.