New Delhi: In a bid to bolster infrastructure growth, investment in road construction in rural areas saw a ten-fold jump under the UPA regime, according to the report card unveiled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the fourth anniversary of UPA-II. The government rolled out more than 20,100 all-weather roads across the nation in 2012, the report said projecting a rosy picture of sector, battling with scores of problems like equity crunch, delays in clearances and land acquisition besides major players abandoning projects mid-way.
"Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, during the year 2012-13, more than 20,100 km all-weather roads have been constructed/upgraded and an expenditure of over Rs 6,450 crore has been incurred. Further, new connectivity has been provided to about 6,000 habitations during the year," the report card said. Connectivity in rural areas has helped small farmers in carrying their agricultural goods to markets where they get improved return for their products, it said. It projected a "better infrastructure in every village as a result of Bharat Nirman" while claiming that Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Mission "is transforming our urban spaces equipping them with better infrastructure."
It said JNNURM saw competion of 185 projects under urban infrastructure development and 388 projects under urban infrastructure project for small and medium towns. On Delhi Metro front, it said 190 km Delhi Metro Rail Network is under operation while phase three of 136.33 km of network at a cost of 41,079 crore, is under implementation. The report said 81 infrastructure projects with an estimated cost of Rs 908.32 crore were sanctioned and 775 crore were released under the Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources scheme. As far as the progress under its flagship road building programme National Highways Development Project (NHDP) was concerned it said 2845 km have been completed under it while 1,300 km were constructed in north eastern region and left wing extremism affected areas.
The government has been under attack for dismal show on infrastructure front including by parliamentary panels which slammed it for 'ambitious' plans. While GVK Power and Infrastructure terminated its contract with NHAI for building Rs 7,500 crore major highway -- Shivpuri-Dewas Expressway in Madhya Pradesh-- another firm GMR Infrastructure had cancelled its pact with the authority for building the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad highway.
The Ministry April 2013 set an internal target of giving 9,000 km of projects in 2013-14 in order to ensure award of at least 7,300 km to revive the sector against the backdrop of a dismal show in 2012 when award of road projects declined to 1,933 kms -- much below the target of 9,500 km. Out of the 32 national highway projects awarded during 2011-12, 18 projects have not succeeded in obtaining the financial closure. Many important projects had to be dropped in the wake of reduced allocation including connectivity to 50 minor ports and 24 airports besides special packages for Jammu & Kashmir and North Eastern region.
There are 20 stalled projects entailing Rs 27,000 crore investment which are likely to be executed now after Supreme Court allowed delinking the two clearances as sought by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). On the port front, the report card said the capacity of major ports increased from 696 MTPA to 748 MTPA while thirty two new projects with a capacity of 136.75 MTPA and an additional investment of about Rs 6,765 crore were awarded. Besides, the report said, "Two new major ports at West Bengal and in Andhra Pradesh are planned which will add about 100 MTPA" and a Bill to declare Lakhpur Bhanga stretch in Assam as National Waterways no six has been introduced in Rajya Sabha.
Port front has seen a dismal show during last few years and in FY'2013 against the target of awarding 42 projects cumulatively entailing Rs 14,000 crore investment, the ministry could clear only half of investment value. Cargo traffic at 12 major ports in the country declined by 2.58 per cent at 545.68 million tonnes (MT) during 2012-13. The port capacity was 747.51 MT by the end of the last fiscal, whereas the government had envisaged a capacity of 1,001.8 MT by March 2012. Concerned over slow pace of capacity addition by 12 major ports, a Parliamentary panel has said plans to increase their capacity to 1,229.24 million tonnes (MT) by 2017 appears to be a "distant dream".
The 12 major ports -- Kolkata (Haldia), Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Ennore, Tuticorin, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Mumbai, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Kandla -- had even failed to achieve the 1,016.55 MT capacity target by the end of 11th Plan (2007-12).
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