Video of Nitin Gadkari slamming NHAI officials goes viral

A video in which Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was seen slamming the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials for delay in completing construction of its headquarter in the national capital has gone viral on social media.

Gadkari, who inaugurated the newly built NHAI headquarter at Dwaraka in Delhi through video conference on October 26, shared an entire event video on his Twitter account.

While concluding his speech after inaugurating the building, Gadkari said, "It is customary in such a programme that after completion of any work, it is their practice to greet everyone and offer good wishes. I am ashamed to congratulate all officials for the project due to delay in completing the project,"

"The government in 2008 decided to build a new headquarters for NHAI and awarded tender in 2011. But Rs 250 crore work was completed in 2020 after 9 years. When we are planning to complete Delhi-Mumbai Expressway costing around Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh crore in 2.5 to 3 years, it is shameful for taking 9 years to complete just a Rs 250 crore project. Two governments and 8 chairmen served during nine year period. Please put photos of Chief General Managers and General Managers of that period in the building so that history will know them", he said.

Gadkari reprimanded the officers saying, "I had taken 2-4 meetings for this. Now, according to the official method, after putting a blame on the contractor, the matter went to NCLT and a report will be prepared stating that it went to NCLT. The most important thing is that people who have distorted views, don't want to work in the NHAI, they just want to halt the work."

Ths NHAI has some people as guides and philosophers who are like "BishKanya", although their honesty cannot be doubted, he added.

The Chief General Managers and General Managers' system is not good in the NHAI. This building is the best example of their incompetency, he said asking the NHAI officials to prepare a research paper on how it got delayed.

"Why best brains from IIT are not recruited to NHAI. They got to private-sector jobs. Some waste people have joined here and not performing. These people also ignore the suggestions of the ministry. The NHAI's indolent, unhelpful and corrupt people are so powerful that even after saying in the ministry they make their decisions wrong. It is time to show such 'incompetent' officers the way out," Gadkari said.

"The NHAI should study why the projects getting delayed and find out bottleneck and take a decision to resolve it. Wrong decisions and delays are not good for the country", Gadkari said.