Shimla: The 19th century Hindustan-Tibet road, also known as Silk route, will be restored for vehicular traffic as an alternative to National Highway No 1, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said on Sunday.”This road will be widened for regular bus services to ensure transportation facility to the people of the district round the year,” Mr Singh said.
The road was laid by Britishers in the 19th century to connect with Tibet for trade through Shipki.
The chief minister was addressing a public meeting at Reckong Peo in tribal Kinnaur district.
He also said that all possible help was given to the flood-hit Kinnaur.
“The state government has provided all possible assistance to restore normalcy in rain ravaged Kinnaur district, which suffered huge losses due to heavy rains and floods during the monsoon season,” Mr Singh said.
He said that the government has ensured that there was no shortage of funds for the relief and restoration of vehicular traffic and the roads were restored.
The Chief Minister also said that the government will provide suitable land to rehabilitate the families who have lost their houses in the natural calamity.
He announced to provide Rs. 40 lakh for construction of a stadium at Pooh, and said that a survey would be conducted for laying the sewerage system in Pooh.
MANGALORE: Unable to bear the pathetic condition of road at the Nanthoor Junction, the residents of Nanthoor, Bikarnakatte, Bajjodi and Jayashree Gate staged a protest at the Nanthoor Circle here on Thursday.
The unscientific construction of the circle; the road without proper gradient and footpaths have made the lives of the road users and residents miserable. If its slush and pot holes during monsoons, it is dust bath during other times the users have to put up with.
Vasanth Kumar Shetty, administrator of Saanidhya Residential School, Shakthi Nagar for special children says: The work should have finished in 2007 and we are still suffering due to the shoddy work done by NHAI. Last monsoon we contacted NHAI and brought this problem to their notice and this year it was worse. I don’t think they have taken it seriously.
“Our school for day scholars starts at 9.15am. Most of the times students reach after 9.30am. What should take 10 seconds to cross that circle takes half an hour to 45 minutes. Forget technical persons, even a common man knows that the road is unscientific. But still we don’t have any solution from NHAI- even after so many tears,” he said.
Eric Ozario, head of Mandd Sobhann: “The residents were protesting against genuinely bad condition of roads, the unscientific circle, a junction which has no footpaths for pedestrians, no gutter for proper flow of rain water. It’s a chaos of a situation there. I pass that circle four times a day and its pathetic.”
NHAI Project director Shriram Mishra told TOI: The section would be asphalted immediately after rains stop and the problem of rain water overflow will not be there since a fly over will be constructed with a cross drain and footpaths.
Concession period of 30 years including construction period of 910 days will start from the appointed date
Infrastructure firm Sadbhav Engineering today said NHAI has fixed October 9 as appointed date for a road widening project in Rajasthan, which it bagged from highways regulator recently.
“National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has declared October 9 as appointed date for the project – four laning of Rajsamand-Gangapur-Bhilwara Sadbhav Engineering in Rajasthan on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis,” the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The appointed date is the date from which the concession agreement starts.
The company has recently won a Rs 778-crore project for widening of the 87 km stretch, which it said will “executed through our special purpose vehicle, i.e. Bhilwara-Rajsamand Tollway Pvt Ltd.”
The concession period of 30 years including construction period of 910 days will start from the appointed date, it said.
NEW DELHI: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police will look into the under-reporting of toll collection by Gurgaon expressway operators, which has allegedly caused a Rs 24 crore loss to the NHAI.
EoW officers said there would be raids across the concerned offices and sleuths would collect the accounts register to establish the concessional shares of respective parties.
Alleging this as “breach of trust” NHAI has complained that the operator DGSCL resorted to “dishonesty” by diverting toll for its own use. NHAI has said the concessionaire, its directors, officers and other persons were party to “criminal conspiracy” with intent of fraud.
NHAI referred the case after the highways ministry asked it to lodge a criminal case against the operator as it was first reported in TOI on Tuesday. The ministry had issued this advisory after TOI had reported how a week-long study of traffic flow at 32-lane toll plaza in July had exposed average underreporting of at least 79,000 daily. The daily toll collection was less by Rs 15.58 lakh during that period.
The authority has also alleged DGSCL of committing forgery of valuable securities by making false documents and electronic records, book of accounts etc for underreporting of toll and used them as “genuine”.
NHAI has also said that Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had directed it in July 2011 to investigate the toll issue and subsequently in December that year they had appointed KPMG to carry out traffic study. NHAI in its complaint to EoW has claimed the operator never cooperated citing some “trivial” reasons until July this year.
“The complaint has just come to us. It suggests that there is a dispute of share distribution of collections. We will have take help of our financial experts in probing this particular matter,” said a senior EoW officer.
DGSCL in a statement again refuted the traffic numbers put by KPMG through their manual counting process. “It appears that KPMG has not done any traffic count study but has only presented the figures provided to them by a third party vendor, which is a security service company. Our toll plazas are equipped with the most advanced automatic vehicle classification and counting (AVCC) system which is completely computerized and there is no scope for human error or intervention. We are scrutinizing the manual data given to us and once the data is proven to be incorrect we would take strong action against the parties responsible for this,” a company spokesperson said.
MANALI: Tourists visiting the hill station of Manali have some reason to be happy as the town will get a bypass highway and a double-lane bridge soon to decongest the traffic in the narrow roads.According to sources, the new road and bridge will decongest the town and help reduce hour-long traffic jams. As per the plan, a parallel highway will be built from the entry point to Manali which will meet the existing Manali-Rohtang highway at the other end of the town, with the help of a double-lane 120-metre bridge over Beas river.
NHAI sources said the work on the project will start soon after completing the formalities. The project is awaiting execution for over five years, as it was to be built only after four-laning of the Ner Chowk-Manali national highway. But as the state government has transferred the project to NHAI and demand is growing to execute it on priority, work on both bypass and four-lane projects will start simultaneously.
Kullu Manali Paryatan Vikas Manch president Anup Thakur said Manali is in dire need of a bypass highway to keep the traffic moving and that they have got good news from the ministry of transport, road and highways.
Thousands of vehicles enter Manali town every day. Many of them moving towards Rohtang and New Manali areas are forced to enter the town before crossing the congested bridge. Thakur said the narrow highway of Manali was not enough for these many vehicles, resulting in hour-long traffic jams. “The narrow bridges on Beas river are also causing traffic jams and pedestrians face difficulty as the bridge remains occupied by the moving traffic all the time,” he said. Once the bypass is completed, unnecessary traffic will not enter the town, he added.
Project director, NHAI, Satish Kaul said earlier the state government was building the highway and bridge but now it has been transferred to NHAI. “The project has already been approved. Work on both Manali bypass and Ner Chowk-Manali four-lane projects will start simultaneously,” he said.
(The road transport and highways ministry has directed the NHAI to sort out the buy-back of the contentious Delhi-Gurgaon expressway project.)
NEW DELHI: In a sharp rebuke to the highways authority, the road transport and highways ministry has directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to sort out the buy-back of the contentious Delhi-Gurgaon expresswayproject through the legal process on its own instead of involving the government in a contractual dispute.”It is now for the NHAI to pursue the matter through the legal process as buying back the concession is the first step before other options can be examined,” said a letter sent by the ministry on Thursday to NHAI chairman RP Singh.
The ministry sent the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by ET, after the authority recently wrote to the government asking it to buy back the concession instead of getting into litigation.
Suspecting criminal liability on part of the concessionaire, the ministry has also requested the Central Vigilance Committee to investigate and refer the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation if a criminal case is made. “There is no point in referring the matter to the government as it is essentially a contractual dispute which is to be resolved and pursued to its logical end by the NHAI,” the letter said.
The NHAI had on Wednesday stated that the case, which is in Delhi High Court, was being prolonged on “one pretext or the other” while the lenders and the concessionaire, DGSCL, were raising extraneous issues and diverting the main issue. It also called upon the Haryana government for “finding fault with NHAI” instead of taking over by paying Rs 335 crore termination payment under political force majeure (unforeseeable circumstances).
But the ministry believes this would be more expensive than if they took over the project at a cost of Rs 130 crore. “It is patently clear that the government of Haryana is not pursuing its earlier intention of buying out this project. The only logical option therefore before the NHAI is to buy-back the concession as provided for in the agreement, at the earliest,” the ministry said in the letter.
The 28-km Delhi-Gurgaon expressway project has been embroiled in controversy over various issues including substandard service provided to commuters. The NHAI served the concessionaire with a termination notice, which was challenged in the Delhi High Court. The ministry has sought the assistance of the Attorney General to represent the NHAI in the court.
“The lenders, led by IDFC, extended Rs 1,600 crore to the concessionaire although this was not approved by NHAI. The concessionaire is not sharing details of the escrow account from where they have withdrawn Rs 676 crore by way of an inter-corporate deposit. We have asked the Enforcement Directorate to inquire if this contravenes any law of the land,” said a ministry official.
SUMMARY The ministry, official sources said, has forwarded these complaints to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for necessary action
While the legal battle over the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway continues between the government, lender IDFC and the developer DS Constructions, the ministry of road transport and highways has received several complaints from commuters alleging that the developer is issuing blank toll receipts. The ministry, official sources said, has forwarded these complaints to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for necessary action.The NHAI in March had issued a showcause notice to DSC for not depositing the entire toll collected in the escrow account as required. “The ministry has received numerous complaints regarding people getting blank toll receipts at the Gurgaon toll plaza and such a matter needs to be looked in and investigated,” the ministry told the NHAI in a letter written by joint secretary (highways) Rohit Kumar Singh.
The matter came to light in April and the roads ministry has taken up the issue with the authority more than once. It, sources said, also attached one of the blank toll receipts it got from a complainant with the latest letter, asking the authority to inquire and find out the genesis of such blank toll receipts. The ministry asked the authority to take up the issue with the concessionaire, saying it is a clear violation of the concession agreement signed between the authority and the developer.
NHAI’s March notice to DCS said: “In the last several days, the revenue collection is falling and the NHAI feels that the concessionaire is diverting the toll revenue instead of depositing it into the escrow account.”
The authority also added that the concessionaire was also not promoting electronic tolling and monthly passes to the benefit of local traffic. With the increasing number of complaints, the government has made up its mind that it no longer wants the current developer to run the expressway.
Road transport minister Oscar Fernandez last week said that the government would make a concerted plea in the Delhi high court for an early decision.
The decision for joint representation by all wings of the central government and the Haryana government was taken in a high-level meeting between Fernandez, state CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, DSC and senior officials of the road ministry.
DS Constructions chief HS Narula is understood to have told the minister that the company is not interested in going for an out-of-the-court settlement.
A senior road ministry official privy to the meeting said the government also told the concessionaire that it had not met the MoU conditions signed last year but the concessionaire dismissed the charges, adding the government had not cooperated with it.
The issue is in the court since last two years now.
“We want an early decision because the public is suffering because of the delay in the decision and we going to strongly plead our case,” Fernandez said.
FE in an earlier report said the IDFC-led consortium’s R1,600-crore exposure to the expressway project is in trouble because the relevant loan agreement does not empower the lead lender to replace the over-leveraged concessionaire – DSC – even in case of default.
The NHAI had contested the developer changing the lenders (taking much higher amounts of loans) without its consent although these loans were based on the future revenue streams of the expressway project.
(“The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has earmarked Rs 11,885 crore on the projects for this fiscal,” a Road Transport and Highways Ministry official said.)
NEW DELHI: Highways regulator NHAI has set a an expenditure target of Rs 11,885 crore for 2013-14 on its many projects, including flagship road building scheme NHDP.The NHAI is tasked to implement various road projects of about 50,000 kms, of which widening of about 21,000 km has already been completed.”The National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) has earmarked Rs 11,885 crore on the projects for this fiscal,” a Road Transport and Highways Ministry official told PTI.
The total cost of about 50,000 km projects is about Rs 2 lakh crore and about half of which has already been spent, the official said.
The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) aims to build 34,108 km in four phases and it has so far completed widening of 7,501 km while work is under way for 11,459 km more.
The balance of 15,148 kms are still to be awarded, the official said.
NHDP is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and widen major highways in India to international standards.
Projects worth Rs 3 lakh crore are likely to be bid out under its seven phases.
Concerned over the slow progress of projects under NHDP, a Parliamentary panel had recently asked the ministry to take steps for expediting them in order to attract private investment.
The official said as far as other ambitious projects like North-South & East-West Corridors are concerned, only 372 km has been left for award of work as 611 km is under implementation, while the major chunk 6,159 has already been completed.
The North-South (NS) Corridor connects Srinagar with Kanyakumari, while the East-West (EW) corridor connects Porbandar with Silchar. The total length of the NS-EW network is 7,142 km.
The project was originally scheduled to be completed in 2009 but as per officials the same was delayed due to problems in land acquisition and law and order in some parts.
The Ministry has already taken the issue with state governments asking their support for expediting the project.
NEW DELHI: Private highway developers are trying to extract maximum relief from government, citing the continuing economic gloom that has impacted their projects. Developers want government to allow rescheduling of annual premium payment for all the 39 projects awarded since April 1, 2010, including projects which have taken off. Premium is annual upfront amount that developers pay to NHAI.NHAI has forwarded the fresh proposal of developers to the highways ministry at a time when Cabinet is likely to consider the premium rescheduling of 23 “stressed” projects where work has not yet started. A top ministry official said they have returned the proposal to NHAI and have asked it to put it before the authority’s board, which has representatives from road, Planning Commission and the finance ministry.
After receiving a proposal from the National Highway Builders Federation (NHBF) and IRB Infra that the proposed premium rescheduling scheme should be extended to all premium projects, NHAI has asked the ministry to put a supplementary note for Cabinet’s consideration. It has said half of estimated toll revenues have been hit due to the economic slowdown.
Ministry looking at making a criminal liability case
NEW DELHI, SEPT :
The Delhi-Gurgaon toll road project is getting further tangled in controversies. The Highways Ministry is considering whether a criminal liability case can be made on the project.
This is what emerges in a letter sent by Highway Ministry Secretary Vijay Chhibber to NHAI Chairman R.P. Singh on Thursday.
Simultaneously, the Haryana Government has backed off from its earlier stated intention of buying out the project to make it toll free and ease the pain for commuters facing jams on the toll road. With this, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will have to buy-back the concession agreement, at the earliest, the Secretary said.
On Wednesday, NHAI Chairman had written to Highway Secretary to decide how the project could be handed over to Haryana State Government.
A day later, on Thursday, the Road Secretary wrote back to NHAI that in a meeting between Highways Minister and Haryana Chief Minister – held in the presence of Highway Secretary, NHAI Chairman and Haryana Chief Secretary – it was “patently clear that the Government of Haryana is not pursuing its earlier intention of buying out that project”.
Given the importance of the issue and the prevailing uncertainty, the Ministry will also seek assistance from Attorney General to represent NHAI in pursuing this matter in Delhi High Court. This project is already under dispute due to the multiple issues and hearings are going in Delhi High Court.
Due to the toll road developer not meeting his commitments on road maintenance and commuters facing a lot of inconvenience, NHAI had decided to terminate the project.
But, the project lenders – currently led by IDFC – have given more money to the developer than the project cost agreed upon by the Government. So, if the contract is cancelled, they will get less money from the NHAI. Now, the lenders do not want NHAI to cancel the project as they have to chase the road developer – DSC Ltd – for the repayment, who is already financially stressed.
Indications are that the issue has been referred to Chief Vigilance Commissioner and the Enforcement Directorate to pursue whether the road developer had used inter-corporate deposit route to transfer funds from the escrow account, where toll money received from project were kept.
