Developers will be black listed for delay in road works

The Centre will audit the performance of road developers and poor performers will be backlisted, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari warned here on Thursday.

Gadkari, who chaired a meeting of the state public works department secretaries to review the performance of road-building activities, told reporters that developers who complete their projects on time would be rewarded.

Also, poor performers will be blacklisted, he said.

To ensure smooth fund-flow to the road sector, the minister said he would hold a meeting with bank heads and address their concern soon.

The minister also said faulty DPRs (detailed project report) was also one of the reasons for the delay in implementing some project.

"It has been decided that if faulty DPR is found to be the reason for the delay in execution of the project, consultants who prepared DPRs will be penalised and black-listed," he said.

Gadkari also set the target to complete the over-700 ongoing National Highways projects in the country by March 2019. Of these, about 100 projects are likely to be completed by December 2018.

The construction target of NHAI for the year 2018-19 has been revised upwards from 5,058 km to 6,000 km and the minister expressed confidence that the organisation would surpass this target.

Delay in land acquisition and utility shifting, environment clearance and permission for cutting of trees have been identified as some of the main reasons for delay of the highways projects.

The Secretary of Road Transport & Highways will hold meetings with the chief secretaries of every state to sort out the encumbrances that are delaying the highways projects, he said.