Road projects face bumpy ride ahead as deadlines loom

As far as NHDP IIIA is concerned,the government needs to push completion of about 85 per cent of the project in the next ten months if it has to meet the December 2009 deadline. Of the total planned 4,815 km,only 711 km was complete by February 2009,while 1,954 km was under implementation,according to Morgan Stanley Research. The total cost of the project phase is about Rs 22,200 crore.

The only phase that may,however,see completion in time is phase I of the NHDP,which has only 127 km left for completion by December 2009. The total planned length is 5,846 km,of which 5,719 km stands completed as of February 2009. This Rs 30,000-crore project was also launched in 1999 under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. About 91 per cent progress had already been made on this project as of April 2006 after which it seems to have gotten stuck.

But the year ahead does not look promising as far as work progress is concerned,according to infrastructure experts. “We believe that the progress on road development is likely to be tardy until the end of 2009. The new Cabinet,which should be in place by June 2009,will need to spearhead this spending and,if need be,take the financial risk on its own balance sheet for such investments as the private sector could remain shy,” states the Morgan Stanley Research report states.

What looks even more unpromising is that work has not even begun on other phases of the NHDP. In the case of NHDP IIIB of the planned 7,294-km highway,no stretch had been completed by February this year,In fact,there is no stretch under completion (or on which work is on) in this Rs 54,300-crore project. The target date for completion is December 2013.