Farmers’ stir further delays four-laning work
FARIDKOT: Nine years have passed since the four-laning work on the 78km stretch of National Highway 95 between Ludhiana and Talwandi Bhai (Ferozepur) via Moga had begun. After missing several deadlines and despite the financial assistance provided by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the project is still far from completion.
Now, the ongoing farmers’ stir has further delayed the project as toll plaza’s daily collections, which were supposed to be used for pending construction work, have stopped since its closure in September.
The project was to be completed by 2017 and has missed six deadlines since then. About 10% of the work is still pending.
Despite multiple extensions, the construction company failed to complete the project and the roads it built also turned out to be of substandard quality. The construction company was asked to repair the road after it failed to adhere to safety norms. Most of the pending work is on the stretch from Moga to Talwandi Bhai. Service lanes have not yet been constructed at many places, while work on a couple of flyovers is also incomplete. Also, a substantial portion of railway over bridge at Dagru crossing has not been built.
In December 2019, when the company ran into financial troubles, NHAI had sanctioned ₹13.5 crore to it as one-time settlement for completing the project.
As newly constructed portions of the road had hundreds of potholes with hardly any uniform gradient on the flyovers, only repairing work was done with the sanctioned amount.
When the company expressed inability to fund the project further, NHAI allowed to run a toll plaza near Mullanpur
in Ludhiana district. The daily collections of toll plaza were supposed to be used for the pending construction work.
“NHAI had disbursed ₹13.5 crore to the private company in a phased manner. The amount was only used to repair faulty roads. As there was no other source of funding, the company was allowed to start collection at Mullanpur toll plaza. But due to farmers’ agitation, the toll plaza is not operational for the past three months. So, the company failed to start the pending construction work,” said an NHAI official on condition of anonymity.
Moga deputy commissioner (DC) Sandeep Hans said the construction work on the National Highway 95 is still incomplete.
“It was decided to allow company to run one toll plaza and the collected amount was supposed to be used for further construction work. The toll plaza was closed following the farmers’ protest due to which, the work never commenced,” he added.
Reason for delay
The main reason behind the unnecessary delay in completion of the project was the dispute between the contractor and sub-contractors. The project was awarded to PAN India for ₹692 crore in 2013 which further handed over the job to Varaha Infrastructure. The passing of the work almost kept the project at a standstill for two years — October 2013 to July 2015. Later, the project was again taken over by the Essel group.
Project’s inception
The four-laning project worth ₹480 crore was envisaged by the NHAI in 2010. The letter of appointment in this regard was issued on December 6 the same year.
The project was awarded to Essel Ludhiana Talwandi Toll Road Private Limited and the agreement was signed on January 20, 2011 between the private company and NHAI. The construction work commenced on March 26, 2012, and deadline was set for September 2014.
The project was handed over on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis and all rights of the stretch were shifted from the NHAI to the entrusted firm and in return the firm has to provide every facility to the commuters until the end of the concession period, which was 29 years from the appointed date. The entrusted firm was allowed to collect money from two toll plazas.