NEW DELHI, APRIL 27: Embroiled in a controversy involving his sons’ firms and gas supplies, Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways T R Baalu has kicked off another row, this time in his Ministry. For the third time in just over a year, he is said to be preparing the ground to shunt out National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) chairman N Gokulram who is just six months into his job.

The cold war between the Minister and the chairman has heightened in recent days — for nearly two months now, Baalu and the chairman, both from Tamil Nadu, have not even been on speaking terms. The chairman avoids attending any meetings with the Minister and usually sends in his deputies.

Despite several attempts to contact Baalu — The Indian Express even sent a fax to his office — for his comments on the face-off with Gokulram, there was no response. Gokulram, when contacted, declined comment.

Gokulram, an IAS officer from Karnataka cadre, was appointed NHAI chairman in October 2007, replacing J S Maini who served for just about two months before the Minister had him moved out. In fact, Gokulram was the third chairman that NHAI got in a single year — earlier, Pradeep Kumar had been moved out in August 2007 after serving as chairman for 10 months.

Incidentally, the NHAI chairman’s job has a fixed tenure of three years, extendable to five years.

Tension between Baalu and Gokulram has been simmering for a while. Both the Ministry and NHAI have been drawing flak for dismal performance on the road sector for some time now and Baalu has been feeling the heat. At a meeting of the Committee on Infrastructure (CoI) in December 2007, the Ministry was pulled up for failing to meet highway four- laning targets and loss of revenue because several sections were going untolled.

At a review meeting of the CoI recommendations this week, lack of progress was again a point of discussion. Baalu, it is learnt, has been blaming the lacklustre performance on the NHAI chairman.

Some NHAI board members, besides some senior officials, have also been ordered out from NHAI to the Ministry this year for alleged lack of performance. In some cases, Gokulram had intervened and requested the Minister to hold back transfer orders.

While the minister had requested for Maini’s appointment, Gokulram’s posting was based on Secretary Brahm Dutt’s recommendations.