NH projects are like running an orchestra
As for the problems, the official says the reasons are “wide and varied”—and attributes them to managerial deficiencies as well. “Sometimes, the model concession agreements are too rigid. Banks would have to some extend over-financed a project, and land acquisitions would not take place on time. There will thus be delays in the environmental clearances; cases where shifting of utilities could not take place in time,” he notes. “Overall, the concessionaires won’t actually enjoy the relaxations, resulting in significant rise in interest costs. Sometimes the original cost would even get doubled.”
Even so, NHAI will not terminate the project. “We will evaluate how much work is already done. We seek ways to negotiate the difficulties—not by redrafting the contract, because it takes a year’s time; we can’t do it. Instead, NHAI adopts to take a conciliatory approach, by meeting all the stakeholders, including the state administration and our own officials, trying to see how we can, resolve the stalemate and try and get the project moving,” Chandra clarifies. “The policy measures that the government agrees to take should also support such endeavours.”
For long now, NHAI has banked on the PPP (public-private partnership) model for the development of national highways. Today, from experience, the general consensus is that it won’t be wise to go ahead with the formula all the time. “Six to seven years ago, from 2008, the Planning Commission would dictate to the ministry (of Road Transport and Highways) to take up projects invariably on PPP basis. True, it had lot of advantage in boosting private-sector efficiency, but then it also threw up instances of Safety has nothing to do with traffic density. A school on the roadside is really very important.inefficiency that often upset the entire process. Today, we can go for hybrid annuity (an insurance contract that allows buyers to allocate funds to both fixed and variable annuity components) or EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) mode. Thus we have relatively more flexible approach.
Also, earlier we used to have an inter-ministerial group that would be given a presentation, which it would examine in great detail. It used to be heavily time-consuming; it would even take a year! Today, the ministry directly deals with it. The matter now usually gets cleared within weeks!
NHAI has a “pretty streamlined system” of recruiting bidders and engineers. Various committees and expert groups, with the help of external agencies, are working on ways to improve the capacity and efficiency of road engineers, sticking to ground truths.
NHAI, the new head believes, should not compromise on certain matters. Earlier, the Planning Commission used to cut down on some safety features which they thought were “too expensive”. The finance ministry used to find structures such as flyover needless and service road wider than necessary. “But then safety has got nothing to do with traffic density. Schools on this or that side are important. From conceptualization, somebody must physically inspect the local population on both sides, how the road interfaces with natural hazards— to the point of selecting the right consultants, concessionaires, and ensuring the process of project delivery.”
For, “unlike an IT or civil aviation project (which has very few parties involved), this is like running an orchestra. You need to get the right pitch and symphony. It’s not just people involved in projects; we have to take notice of animals, wildlife, flora and fauna. For the roads that are already been built, we are looking at how retrofitting can be done.”