Tardy Progress in Construction of Road irks PM

Expressing concern over delayed progress in construction of national highways, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pulled up the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and asked to expedite its activities to meet the target of building 20 km of road a day. 
In 2009, the then Road Transport and Highways minister Kamal Nath had set an ambitious goal of building 35,000 km of roads by 2014 which translated into a target of developing 20 km of road a day. A recent status report released by the Ministry reports, “During 2010-11, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) awarded projects for a length of 5,059 km (13.86 km per day) and completed a length of 1,780.34 km (4.9 km per day) under National Highways Development Project. And during 2010-11 this Ministry has completed 2,158.03 km (5.9 km/day) of National Highways through State PWDs.”
Amid criticism over poor progress, the Prime Minister said, “The target of completing 20 km a day is neither excessive, given our needs, nor unrealistic, given the priority we attach to this sector”. Though Kamal Nath was shifted out of the Ministry and C P Joshi took over, nothing could accelerate the pace of road construction. 
However, “To achieve higher completion rate NHAI has accelerated the pace of award of projects. In order to expedite implementation of projects Regional Offices, each headed by Chief General Managers have also been set up by NHAI for close monitoring of implementation of projects. Two zonal offices, each headed by Executive Director have been set up at Bhopal and Bangalore for close monitoring of pre-construction activities. Achievement of targets is being monitored closely. Projects are periodically reviewed at field offices and at Head Quarter”, the Ministry informed.

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