A bumpy ride for Himachal's apples

A World Bank-funded multi-million road project in Himachal Pradesh, earlier awarded to a Chinese firm but which missed its deadline following which an Indian contractor was hired, is caught in a political slugfest.

The main opposition BJP has been blaming the ruling Congress for abnormal delay in the completion of the bumpy 80-km-long Theog-Kotkhai-Hatkoti-Rohru stretch, the lifeline for Shimla's prominent apple belt which carries out annual business worth Rs.1,000 crore.

Last week it carried out a six-day 120-km-long 'padyatra' or protest march from Rohru to Shimla town, submitted a memorandum to Governor Urmila Singh and filed a petition in the high court to highlight the cause.

"We have urged the governor to direct the government to constitute a special task force for the project and fixed a time limit for completion of the road work," former minister Narender Bragta told IANS.

He said the memorandum, submitted Nov 20, highlighted the plight of the people due to the inordinate delay in completing the road.

"We demanded that five-metre width of the road should be metalled on priority while the remaining work be completed in routine," said Bragta, himself a prominent apple grower in upper Shimla.

The Congress government countered it by saying it was just a political drama to divert the attention of the public from the core issue of development.

Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes said the World Bank-funded road, having a length of 80.684 km and amounting to Rs.228.25 crore, was awarded to Chinese company Longjian Road and Bridge Ltd Feb 29, 2008, by the then BJP government. It was to be completed within 36 months.

"The work was unnecessarily delayed due to lack of interest of the then government," Vidya Stokes told IANS.

She said the Chinese company executed only 18 percent work during the BJP government tenure.

Due to the poor condition of roads in Shimla district during the BJP regime about 1,200 persons lost their lives in road accidents. Besides, apple crop worth hundreds of crores of rupees could not be transported to the markets due to bad road conditions, she said.

The contract of the company was terminated Aug 11, 2012.

The present Congress government, she said, fragmented the road work in two parts, 48-km Theog-Kotkhai-Kharapathar and 32-km Kharapathar-Hatkoti-Rohru. Through international bidding, the work was allocated to C&C Constructions Ltd at a cost of Rs.322.76 crore.

The timeframe for completing the entire road is June 2016, added Stokes, who is also a prominent apple grower.

But locals say the entire 80-km-long stretch from Theog to Rohru is a motorist's nightmare.

Chet Ram, a grower in the Jubbal area, said: "Since the awarding of the project in 2008 the work remained standstill a number of times. Now the work has gained some momentum but it will again be hampered for weeks together with the onset of snowfall in the area by next month."

Justifying the delay in work execution, Bragta filed the petition with a prayer to direct the state and the contractor to complete the project within a stipulated period.

Advocate General Shrawan Dogra informed the court Nov 19 that a public interest litigation relating to the project was also filed by advocate Devinder Chauhan and various orders were passed by the court for its early construction.

After its first hearing, the court listed both the petitions for next hearing Nov 24.

Chauhan's petition claimed that due to bad condition of the road, the apple growers of the Theog, Kotkhai, Jubbal and Rohru area have incurred a loss of Rs.500 crore owing to delay in crop transportation.

Himachal Pradesh has limited rail and air connectivity, forcing it to rely exclusively on its road network for transportation.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)