24, June:The Union Minister of shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Thiru T. R. Baalu has urged upon the States to fully utilize the funds allocated to them for the maintenance and repairs of the National Highways and under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes for development of State roads like the Central Road Fund (CRF) and under the Economic Importance and Inter-State Connectivity Schemes (IE & ISC) etc. He was speaking at the Conference of the Ministers in charge of the Highways in the States here today.
Thiru Baalu drew the attention of the participating Ministers towards the critical issues concerning the projects under NHDP which involve a number of pre-construction activities like land acquisition, shifting of utilities, forest clearances and other approvals from various agencies. He pointed out that delays in these activities have become serious bottlenecks in achieving timely completion of the projects. Besides, he said, works have been stalled for want of facilities or due to resistance for payment of user fee (toll) at many a place. “We need your active co-operation and personal intervention to address these problems so as to together achieve the ambitious targets we have set out for ourselves”, the Minister added.
Referring to the Centrally Sponsored Schemes for development of State roads, the Minister said that during 2008-09, the total accrual under CRF is Rs.1671.64 crore and the available allocation under EI & ISC works is Rs.185.74 crore. He asked the States to ensure that there are no unspent allocations and also to ensure that adequate priority is accorded to proper signage and markings, provision for crash barriers especially in hilly areas with a focus on improvement in geometrics to enhance the safety. The Minister informed that during the year 2006, there were around 4.6 lakh road accidents which killed 1,05,749 people and injured close to 5.00 lakh persons in India. He said that these numbers translate into one road accident every minute and one road accident death every five minutes for India. At the prices of year 2000, it amounted to 3% of GDP which in financial terms comes to Rs. 55,000 crore per year, he said.
The Minister informed that an allocation of Rs.1931.29 crores has been made in the Annual Plan 2008-09 for the States for National Highways (Original) works. An allocation of Rs. 210 crores has also been made to NHAI for works under NH(O) during 2008-09. Unlike in previous years, the allocations to the States are being released in phases during the current year considering their requirements and the progress of expenditure incurred so as to avoid surrender of funds by the States at a later stage. He, therefore, urged the States to ensure that the funds allocated are utilised substantially by October, 2008 so that demand for additional allocation can be made at Revised Estimate stage.
He said that the allocation for Maintenance and Repair this year is Rs.818.38 crore and the funds are being allocated in phases during 2008-09 so that further release is made depending upon the progress of expenditure made and there is no surrender of funds as the funds were not being fully utilized by many States in the past.
Thiru Baalu asked the States to review the existing organizational set up in the State PWDs so as to reorganize them to cater to the current needs of the road sector. Action has already been initiated to restructure NHAI to accord the expertise required for raising of resources, implementation and management of National Highways, he said and added that some States have also taken up such initiatives which need to be emulated by all the States. He said that over 40,000 km of National Highways which are not covered under any of the approved phases of NHDP, would have to be maintained and managed mainly through State Public Works Departments (PWDs) and they should therefore be full equipped for this task.
The Minister said that out of 68,354 kms length of National Highways in the country, about 19,700 km are less than two-lane standards emphasis is required to be given for widening of these stretches of National Highways to a minimum of 2-lane standards within the 11th and the 12th Five Year Plan periods. He said that the Ministry is planning to take up development of about 6,000 kms length of National Highways to 2-lane standards with paved shoulders on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis. “For this purpose, the Ministry has already set up a PPP Cell headed by a Chief Engineer” he informed.
Thiru Baalu also asked the States to give top priority to the issues concerning the road safety. In this regard he also mentioned the problem of overloading and urged the States to strictly enforce the traffic laws, take effective measures to control overloading, and for installation of unified check posts at the State borders.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Shri K.H. Muniyappa said that since the major chunk of the National highway network is to be maintained through the States, their importance, duties and responsibilities have increased by many folds due to massive growth of road sector and hoped that the State PWDs would continue to work untiringly towards fulfilling the dream of a India having the best of highways of the world.
Shri Muniyappa pointed out that although NHDP is being implemented by NHAI, experiences gained so far demonstrates that its successful and timely implementation depends to a very great extent upon the active co-operation and pro-active participation of the State Governments.
The one-day Conference has been organized to discuss several important issues such as preparation and updation of National Highway Land Registers, removal of encroachments from the right of way, land acquisition, tree cutting and shifting of utilities, enhancement of road safety related issues, etc. for the National Highways both under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and Non-NHDP.