NEW DELHi: In its bid to push the pace of highway building further, the road transport ministry will reduce the construction period from the current 30 months to only 18 months in the case of stretches that will be widened to two-and-half lane National
Highways with 100% government funding.
Moreover, if the contractors complete such projects before time, they can get higher incentive as well.
“We are rationalising the construction period for all categories of roads such as four-lane, six-lane and structures such as bridges, flyovers and tunnels. The contract conditions for government-funded projects, which are known as
EPC, are being reworked. Because of modern technology, construction period has reduced significantly,” said a government official.
Sources said much time is not required for widening of highways to two-and-half lanes, which require limited land acquisition and green clearances.
Sources said road transport secretary
Y S Malik has asked his officials to address issues, which ensure that the contractors get the “appointed date” (the day from work can start) within three months from the day a project is bid out. TOI has learnt that the reworked contract condition will also specify that the appointed date will be given only when there is 90% land available for carrying out construction.
The government has also been working on ease of getting green clearances for highway projects, which are linear in nature.
The change in norms of construction period for government-funded projects gains significance considering that three-fourths of the contracts awarded for 17,000 km in 2017-18 were on EPC mode.
The
NDA government has pushed construction and award by more than two-fold since 2014 when it came to power. While construction reached 27 km a day, the daily award of works was 47 km during 2017-18.
Highways minister
Nitin Gadkari has said the highway construction will touch the target of 40 km a day in 2018-19 and his ministry will now follow the new norm for measuring the construction as it’s done in western countries. “Lane length will be the norm in place of the present linear length. Going by that norm, our daily construction in 2017-18 was 94.2 lane km per day,” he had said.
