UPA bent rules to favour firms in highway construction: Cobrapost

The previous UPA government had bent the rules to favour private firms while awarding contract to construct highways, the Cobrapost claimed citing RTI queries.

The UPA government in 2005-06, while proposing six-laning 6,500 km — some 5,700 km of Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) plus some high-density traffic corridors — at a cost of Rs 41,210 crore, bent rules mainly by reducing quantum of number of vehicle plying on highways and increasing the quantum of viability gap funding. 

On September 15, 2006, the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) headed by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh decided to lower the specification for six-lanes. Thus, from the then existing traffic volume of 40,000 passenger car units (PCU) per day necessary for four-lanes, it was lowered to 25,000 PCUs for six-lanes.
 This was the first of many norms/rules changed to hasten project implementation, said Cobrapost citing documents received by RTI activist Vivek Garg.

“The documents revealed that in at least two specific cases, the government bent the rules to help the private sector. This was done despite concerns raised by bureaucrats in various ministries,” said the release from Cobrapost.

Kamal Nath, then Union minister of road transport and highways, had got the Cabinet nod for the six-laning project under Public Private Partnership mode with the private contribution of Rs 35,692 crore out of the total Rs 41,210 crore project cost.