28,531 km NH constructed from 2014-18

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways achieved the highest ever award of 51,073 km of National Highway projects and highest ever construction of 28,531 km over a four year period from 2014-15 to 2017-18. Construction of National Highways has more than doubled from 12 km /day in 2014-15 to 27 km/day in 2017-18 and the total investments in the sector has increased by 2.5 times compared to 2014-15.

This significant leap in the National Highways award and construction was achieved through multiple policy initiatives taken by the Ministry like the Hybrid Annuity Model, Toll Operate Transfer Model (TOT), increased threshold for project appraisal and approval, support for languishing projects, enhanced inter-ministerial coordination etc, according to a PIB release.

The various policy decisions have been supported by transformation and optimisation of  processes within the Ministry and NHAI for pre-construction, construction and maintenance stages to improve quality, reduce construction time and cost. The changes include mandating use of technology in preparation of DPRs, delegation of powers, streamlining of land acquisition process, Independent Engineer/ Authority Engineer reforms, performance management system at NHAI, deployment of manpower from headquarters to field, revision of selection and payment criteria for DPR consultants, and use of standard spans for structures.

Under the ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I, a total of 34,800 km including the balance road works under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) are to be completed by 2021-22. To achieve this ambitious target, Ministry has been continuously working on further improving internal processes through various digital initiatives to reduce cost and time of construction.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (M/o RT&H) has developed the Bidder Information Management System (BIMS) to streamline the process of pre-qualification of bidders for EPC Mode of contracts for all National Highway works with enhanced transparency and objectivity. BIMS would work as a data base comprising bidderwise information covering basic details, civil works experience, cash accruals and network, annual turnover etc. so that bidders’ pre-qualification is assessed based on evaluation parameters like threshold capacity and bid capacity from already stored data and technical evaluation can be carried out faster using this information.