Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari refuted allegations of "cost overruns" in the construction of the Dwarka Expressway and said that the project did see any cost overrun or any instance of corruption.
The Dwarka Expressway is a 27.6-km long, under-construction, 16-lane elevated grade-separated expressway connecting Dwarka in Delhi to Kherki Daula Toll Plaza, Gurugram in Haryana.
"As part of the Bharatmala programme, we submitted a proposal to the cabinet. It did not have a detailed estimated construction cost. It was written separately that the cost of ring roads and flyovers would be finalised after the DPR (detailed project report) is ready," Gadkari said in an interview with Moneycontrol.
Bharatmala is a centrally funded road, highway and expressway project across India. It envisages a network of 83,677 km of roads, costing Rs 10.63 lakh crore.
"Despite the construction of tunnels, bridges, and bridges over bridges, we have kept the base cost of construction to around Rs 18.5 crore per km," the minister said.
The CAG has compared the final cost of the project construction with the initial estimates given without accounting for ring roads and flyovers, Gadkari said.
Gadkari, fondly called "Roadkari" by late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, added that through the tendering process of the Dwarka Expressway, the government has saved around 12 percent in construction cost against estimates in awarding contracts.
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‘CAG’s calculation not right’
Last month, the CAG, in its report on the implementation of Phase-I of the Bharatmala Pariyojana, had said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)'s decision to opt for an elevated carriageway on the Haryana portion of the expressway has pushed up the construction cost to Rs 251 crore per km from the originally approved Rs 18.2 crore per km.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had, on August 14, said that the huge cost overruns in many high-cost Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects, such as the Dwarka Expressway project, flagged by the CAG is a gross misrepresentation of facts.
"We are very transparent, corruption-free, time-bound, quality-conscious, and result-oriented. My aim is to make Indian road infrastructure equivalent to the quality of the US before the end of 2024," Gadkari said.
Claiming that no person can blame him for corruption of even a small amount, Gadkari said, if found guilty, he is ready to face punishment.
‘Confident in meeting project targets’
Gadkari also said that his ministry is confident of meeting both its project awarding and construction target in 2023-24, despite seeing a fall in road construction and awarding in the last two years.
"There were some issues due to COVID, but now I am confident that by the end of March, our road construction and awarding target will be satisfied," Gadkari said.
In June, Gadkari, in a reply to a parliament question, said that the central government has set a provisional target for the construction of about 13,800 km of national highways in 2023-24.
The pace of construction of national highways peaked during the pandemic-hit 2020-21 when lockdowns helped accelerate construction, touching a record high of 37 km a day and resulting in a record 13,327 km of highways built.
For 2021-22, the road ministry initially planned to construct 14,600 km of highways at 40 km per day. It later revised the goal to 12,000 km, but the ministry managed to construct only 10,457 km in 2021-22.
Similarly, for 2022-23, the target was set at 12,500 km, even though Gadkari had previously suggested that 18,000 km of highway construction at a daily rate of 50 km could be considered.
Gadkari also said that there is a lot of optimism around the roads and highway segment in India at the moment.
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Awarding highway projects worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore every year
"Every year, we are awarding projects worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore for highway construction, and around 450 contractors are bidding for these projects," he said.
He said that the number of road contractors has risen from around 60 in 2014 to 450 at the moment.
The minister added that the government is looking to revive awarding projects through the BOT (build, operate and transfer) route and that he is confident of getting a good response for these projects.
Earlier this month, the NHAI had said that it is looking to bid out around 10 percent of its road awards in 2024-25 through the BOT model.
Gadkari added that the BOT model plays a critical role in enhancing the nation’s infrastructure quality, economy and employment prospects.
In BOT projects, private investors take the risk of financing, building and operating highway projects over a concession period of 20-30 years. The developer then recoups investments through user charges or tolls, thereby taking some amount of financial risk. BOT projects have often seen the best road-building technologies and the highest efficiency.
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