Sorry state of India's Infrastructure Projects --- Hijacked by Politicians

Delhi court gets to bottom of highway project delays
The Times Of India, 19 December ,2008,Mumbai

Slams Day-To-Day Meddling By Govt In NHAI Affairs

The Delhi high court seems to have hit upon the root cause of why crucial highway projects across the country have been moving at a snail’s pace in the past few years. And the discovery has left the court both shocked and angry.

The HC found that the ministry of surface transport and highways was indulging in “day to day interference’’ into the affairs of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a statutory body granted functional autonomy by Parliament. The court was so aghast by the fact that NHAI has seen five chairmen in the past twoand-a-half years that it recommended that a law be enacted to ensure that heads of public enterprises have fixed tenures of 3 to 5 years. A division bench comprising Justices Mukul Mudgal and Manmohan said the Law Commission and Centre should seriously consider bringing in such a law which “in our opinion will ensure transparency, efficiency and accountability’’.
The HC’s stinging indictment comes close on the heels of widespread criticism of Union surface transport minister T R Baalu’s reported role in the recent change of guard in the NHAI, which saw N Gokulram being transferred out. There have also been allegations of repeated interference by the ministry resulting in stalling of key highway projects across India.

The court’s strong remarks came while deciding a batch of petitions filed by infrastructure companies assailing NHAI’s shortlisting of bidders for construction of the Hyderabad-Vijaywada section of National Highway 9. In its verdict, HC quashed a government circular rejecting the candidacy of one of the petitioner, GMR, to participate in the bidding process even as it upheld co-petitioner Reliance Infrastructure being declared ineligible.

“The actions of the Union of India...indicates that not only autonomy granted to NHAI by Parliament through a statute enacted in this regard has been curtailed and eroded, but NHAI is sought to be reduced to a mere department of the ministry of road transport and highways,’’ the HC noted.