Costlier land acquisition led to Bharatmala cost overrun: Official

Due to expensive land acquisition and development of wider flyovers, tunnels, and highways, the cost of highway projects under the Bharatmala programme peaked significantly from the initial estimates, according to a report by The Economic Times (ET). The Bharatmala programme was okayed by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in July 2017.

An official was quoted as saying that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on Bharatmala had failed to observe several intricacies when it concluded that there were cost overruns in the Rs 5.35 trillion programme.

According to the CAG report tabled in Parliament on August 10, only 75.62 per cent of the approved length has been awarded, whereas 158.24 per cent of outlay was sanctioned up to March 31, 2023. The CAG also pointed out irregularities in the award of highway projects by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).

The official stated that the CCEA approval for Bharatmala did not include the cost of ring roads and flyovers. The cost of land acquisition has risen by five times from the original estimates of Rs 30,000 crore. Inflation has also led to a rise in the cost of the building materials of roads. These points will be officially explained to the auditor, the official added. 

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The official also said any discrepancy brought before the government will be investigated. The CAG stated in his report that many cases of irregularities in the case of projects were observed in violation of the prescribed tendering process. The CAG recommended that discrepancies in the tendering process should be probed to fix responsibility on officials who failed to ensure compliance with prescribed rules and guidelines.

What is the Bharatmala project?

It is an umbrella program for the highways sector to improve connectivity, especially along the economic corridors, border regions and far-flung areas by constructing elevated corridors, flyovers, overpasses, interchanges, bypasses, and ring roads. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I in 2017.

The project involves developing 24,800 km of national highways and a residual 10,000 km of highways pending under the erstwhile National Highway Development Programme at an estimated outlay of Rs 5.35 trillion.