New Delhi: Amid a brewing political storm, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has challenged a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report outlining the elevated cost of constructing the Dwarka Expressway, branding it as “erroneous”.
According to the CAG report, tabled in Parliament on 10 August, the 29.06-km expressway is being constructed at a “very high” cost of Rs 250.77 crore per km, far beyond the Rs 18.2 crore per km approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
The report has prompted AAP to launch a protest against the “sone ki sadak” (road of gold) and Congress leader Supriya Shrinate to remark that an interplanetary mission such as Mangalyaan could have been dispatched at the cost of constructing 2 km of the expressway.
However, speaking to ThePrint Wednesday, a senior MoRTH official claimed that the CAG report was flawed.
“CAG has erroneously calculated the average cost as Rs 18.2 crore per km by ignoring the nature of the project which has been clearly mentioned in the CCEA approval document,” the MoRTH official said.
Notably, though, the CAG report criticises the nature of the project itself, pointing out that the high construction cost of the Dwarka Expressway was due to the decision to build an eight-lane elevated corridor along with a six-lane at-grade (ground level) corridor. This, CAG suggested, was unnecessary since there was adequate space available for a 14-lane at-grade corridor.
ThePrint takes a look at some of the key arguments in the report as well as MoRTH’s contentions.
Also Read: Ayushman Bharat to Dwarka expressway, Congress cites CAG findings to accuse Modi govt of ‘7 scams’
What is the CAG report all about?
Titled ‘Implementation of Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana’ (BPP-I), the CAG report examines the planning, financial management, implementation, and monitoring of 66 sampled projects being implemented under Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana, a centrally funded initiative to boost highway infrastructure across the country.
In the case of the Dwarka Expressway, the report flags not only the elevated per-kilometre cost of the project, but also claims that the construction was sanctioned by MoRTH without a detailed project report (DPR).
The auditor pegged the high cost of the project to the decision to construct “massive structures” in the form of an eight-lane elevated carriageway in addition to a six-lane at-grade road, rather than a 14-lane at-grade road.
Questioning this decision, it pointed out that while around 70-75 metres right-of-way was required to build a 14-lane at-grade corridor, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had more than that — 90 metres— at its disposal.
“However, for no reasons on record, the project highway in the Haryana region, where its length was 19 km, was planned with eight lane elevated main carriageway and six lane at grade road,” the report said.
“This project… had sanctioned civil construction cost of Rs 7,287.29 crore i.e., Rs 250.77 crore/km as against per km civil construction cost of Rs 18.20 crore approved by CCEA for National Corridors/National Corridors Efficiency Improvements Program under which this project was being constructed,” the CAG said in the report.
However, MoRTH officials have taken exception to CAG’s calculations.
The senior official, quoted earlier, said that the Dwarka Expressway is part of the National Corridors Efficiency Improvement, a component under the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1. Under this, the civil cost for construction of 5,000 km is Rs 91,000 crore and this comes to Rs 18.2 crore per km.
But this, he added, does not account for features like flyovers and so on.
“In the CCEA approval, it has been clearly highlighted that the cost of flyovers and ring roads etc can be established only through Detailed Project Reports as there are no standard cost norms for these components,” the official said.
Per the official, the average construction cost for all four packages of the Dwarka Expressway tender was Rs 206.4 crore per km, yet the awarded work was priced at Rs 182 crore per km— amounting to a 12 percent cost saving for the government
‘No justification’ for elevated carriageway?
The 29.06 km Dwarka expressway, which will connect Shiv Murti in Delhi at National Highway-8 and Kherki Daula in Gurugram, Haryana, is aimed at decongesting NH-48 and providing smooth access to the IGI airport.
Conceived in 2006 by the Haryana government, the project has been stuck due to multiple issues, mainly related to land acquisition. The construction work picked up pace only after it was transferred to the NHAI in 2016 by the Haryana government.
The CAG report mentions that MoRTH has justified its decision to include an eight-lane corridor with minimal entry-exit arrangements to facilitate smooth movements of inter-state traffic.
However, the report then proceeds to pick holes in this reasoning.
“MoRTH did not counter the audit observation that a 14-lane national highway could have been built at grade in available 90 meter right of way,” CAG report said.
The auditor further said that there was “no justification” for planning the eight-lane elevated corridor for “average daily traffic of 55,432 passengers”.
The report cited the feasibility study, which indicated that the daily traffic of 3,11,041 vehicles on NH-48 between Delhi and Gurugram primarily consisted of 2,88,391 passenger vehicles (92.72 percent). Among these, 2,32,959 passenger vehicles (80.78 percent) were inter-city traffic, which would not cross the Kherki Daula toll on NH-48.
The auditor noted that according to the feasibility report, around 55,432 passenger vehicles were projected to travel beyond Gurugram for longer distances in 2018. This traffic was meant to be shared between NH-48 and the eight-lane elevated main carriageway of the Dwarka Expressway.
“There was no justification on record for planning/construction of eight lanes (elevated lanes) for average daily traffic of 55,432 passenger vehicles, besides freight vehicles, whereas only six lanes (at grade lanes) were planned/constructed for average annual daily traffic of 2,32,959 passenger vehicles, besides freight vehicles,” the report said.
The project, which is being executed in four packages, was approved by the NHAI board without any detailed project report, the CAG report said.
“The individual projects of Dwarka Expressway were appraised (December 2017/February 2018) by Project Appraisal and Technical Scrutiny Committee and approved (January/March 2018) by NHAI Board without any detailed project report for the project being prepared (not prepared till date) and even the final feasibility report of the project was submitted (September 2018) after approval of the project by NHAI,” the report read.
CAG also noted that the lane configurations for the Dwarka Expressway were planned without considering the development of “parallel infrastructure”— the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) connecting Delhi to Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror and Alwar. This corridor is awaiting the central government’s final approval.
Delhi-Mumbai expressway may remain ‘underutilised’ for 24 yrs
The CAG report did not only highlight problems with the planning of the Dwarka Expressway. It also pointed out similar concerns over the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.
Part of BPP-I, the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway comprises the Delhi-Vadodara and Vadodara-Mumbai Expressways. It is being developed as an eight-lane greenfield expressway, expandable to 12 lanes in the future.
However, the CAG noted that this eight-lane expressway would remain “underutilised for 24 years from its commercial operation date”. Not just this, it said that “even a six lane infrastructure created would have remained underutilised for 15 years from its commercial operation date”.
Referring to guidelines of the Indian Road Congress— the county’s apex body of highway engineers — the CAG report said that annual average daily traffic of 1,30,000 passenger car units (at 6 percent peak hour traffic) was required.
“Considering the traffic of 40,000 passenger car units on commercial operation date, the eight lane infrastructure and six lane infrastructure of this project would remain underutilised up to 2048 and 2039 respectively,” the report said.
“The required cost-benefit analysis to compare deliverables and cost in respect of four lanes, six lanes and eight lanes configurations respectively was not done by NHAI,” it notes.
Pointing at the deficiencies in the BPP-I projects, the CAG report said: “It is recommended that project appraisal and approval mechanism, including delegation of powers, need to be comprehensively reviewed for ensuring proper scrutiny, selection and approval of all modes of project construction at competent levels.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
Also Read: Chambal Ravines are now safe because of new roads. But Indians must learn how to drive