Govt to launch portals for bringing transparency in road projs

To ensure more transparency and efficiency in its infra development programmes, the Centre will come up with two more portals 'Infracon' and 'ePace' that will provide all necessary details regarding highway projects.
While Infracon will have all the information about individual consultants and consultation firms, ePace will help people know about highway projects status, funding and other details.
"Infracon would serve as a platform for infrastructure consultants where individual consultants as well as consulting firms could register themselves. There credentials would be made available there and can be accessed by people," National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) Managing Director Anand Kumar told PTI.

The steps follow successful launch of INAM-PRO platform for infrastructure and material providers where already 33 cement firms and 107 plants are registered with committing a supply of 97 lakh tonnes of cement at cheaper rates for projects.
The portals have been designed to eliminate corruption and bring in total transparency as per directions from Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadakari.
NHIDCL, incorporated in July 2014 as a fully owned company of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways to fast-track highways construction in border areas and tough terrains has been instrumental to develop Infracon, Kumar added.

Both 'Infracon' and 'ePace' would provide information about highways under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, National Highways Authority of India and NHIDCL, he said adding, "this is a paradigm shift from the past to bring in greater efficiency and transparency in highway projects".

Kumar said 'Infracon' would make available the largest pool of consultants in the field while ePace can track highway projects status, fund details and other information by a click of the mouse.
He said that details for about 1,800 projects have been made available on epace.Nic.In.
All necessary details including project report and current status and all important data will be available on the platform, he added.
A portal has been launched to let central or state government agencies register and procure cement directly from suppliers on cheaper rates on "cash and carry basis", he said.
Kumar added that the method for making cement available through the portal was transparent and left no scope for corruption.

Gadkari earlier has said that his target was to eliminate corruption from the highways ministry and bring in total transparency and efficiency to fast-track projects.