West Bengal is watching an ambitious road project going haywire— courtesy its Chinese connection.

The 52 km-long stretch of the NH 41 connecting Kolaghat on NH 6 to Haldia Port has now been abandoned, at least for the time being. The reason being that the NHAI was forced to terminate the deal with the contractor, a joint venture between the Chinese Water Hydro Energy Corporation (CWHEC) and its Indian partner, Harish Chandra India Ltd (HCIL).

Two years after it overshot its original deadline, the much-hyped port connectivity project was progressing at a snail’s pace until the NHAI decided to end the contract on April 26. According to NHAI authorities, the project—the stretch is a route to Nandigram—had faced no problems from their side, be it land acquisition or shifting the utilities away from the site.

“Normally, the fly ash layering takes time but in this case the efficiency of the Chinese firm was questionable. The NHAI will float a fresh tender soon. As of now, work lies abandoned,” said Project Director RP Singh.

The expected date of completion of the project, which began in September 2002, was March 2005. However, as of April 2007, only 42 per cent of the work had been completed. The total cost of the project was pegged at Rs 220 crore, of which Rs 137 crore had been utilised. The project envisaged four laning of the existing two-lane road from Kolaghat to Haldia. It also included widening and reconstruction of the old stretches, apart from constructing the new two-lane carriageway. Three railway over bridges (ROBs), seven canal bridges and a flyover were also a part of the plan.

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