Union territories fared no better. Against a grant of Rs 150 lakh from the Central Road fund to these governments, they used merely Rs 56.5 lakh between 2004-05 and 2006-07. Officials say the overall trends show that southern states made better use of the fund than their northern counterparts.

“While the utilisation was very bad earlier, it was slightly better now. A state like Delhi did not spend anything from its grant of over Rs 65 crore in two successive fiscals, 2004-05 and 2005-06. Even in 2006-07, it only spent Rs 22 crore of its grant of Rs 43.84 crore. Similarly Pondicherry did not spend anything in 2005-06 and 2006-07,” said a senior official from the Ministry.

Of the Rs 416 crore given to states for roads of inter-state connectivity and economic importance, only Rs 193 crore was used. “The underutilisation is largely due to slow progress of works, receipt of less proposals from states and also states failing to submit utilisation certificates of previous releases. The fund, however, is non-lapsable. The estimate is that over Rs 2,300 crore of CRF is actually lying unutilised because states are not taking a pro-active stand on the issue,” said the official.