NHAI to get 8th chairman in less than 6 years

NEW DELHI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is set to get the eighth chairman in a span of barely six years since August 2015. The Centre on Monday repatriated Uttarakhand cadre IAS officer, S S Sandhu, to his home cadre to take charge as chief secretary after serving as the NHAI chairman for nearly 19 months, The announcement of a new chairman is likely soon.
The frequent change of the chief of the highway building and maintenance organization has been a problem since 2006 barring three years during 2012-15 when R P Singh served a full term. Singh was the last chairman to be selected through a search-cum-selection process.
Officials and industry insiders say that frequent changes may affect long-term planning, reforms and execution.
NHAI has been tasked to develop highway networks under the ambitious Bharatmala programme, approved during the first tenure of the Modi government. NHAI has a mammoth target to build more NHs, raise Rs 30,000 crore from monetisation of assets and resolve claim disputes of private contractors to the tune of Rs 41,500 crore in the next nine months (by March 2022).
The two predecessors of Sandhu – N N Sinha and Sanjeev Ranjan – had served as NHAI chairman for seven and five months respectively.
“This agency deals with complicated matters relating to contractual issues and disputes, which need to be addressed quickly and properly. Any officer needs some time to understand and learn things so that he/ she can deliver. But in most cases, by the time this process of learning is over, the officers get transferred. It’s also bad for other employees as they frequently need to change their approach and working style to understand the chairman and his priorities,” said a senior executive of a major highway developer.
Two key posts in NHAI – member (finance) and member (PPP) - have been lying vacant for months.