Parliamentary panel directs MoRTH to wind up pending projects

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary panel has asked the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to prioritise the pending projects before announcing any new ones. The delayed 888 projects include construction of more than 27,000 kilometres (km) of national highways worth Rs 3.15 lakh crore.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture tabled the report in Parliament and asked the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to prioritise the delayed road projects. The report said that delays in completing the ongoing projects causes considerable loss of time and huge consumption of fuel for the commuters. It also causes increased cost of project which has to be incurred by the Ministry. The panel suggested the Ministry to evolve a delay-resolution mechanism. It added that Maharashtra has a high amount of delayed road projects as compared to other states.

The committee expressed its concerns regarding the delayed projects including Goa to Karnataka and Goa border to Mumbai project besdies the construction of a bypass on National Highway (NH) 77 at Muzaffarpur and ongoing projects at Kaudiyala, Uttarakhand. The panel also said that MoRTH has been able to award just 2,517 km, as against the target of 6,469 km during the current fiscal year.

The panel also expressed its concerns over Rs 97,115 crore debt service liability on NHAI and asked the authority to explore the restructuring of the existing debts and find out the options to raise long-term funds.