Contrary to road transport minister Nitin Gadkari's claim that highway construction fell to 2 km per day during last months of the UPA rule, the road ministry's data shows that it never went below 11 km per day during UPA-2.
Rather, construction by NHAI and other agencies was the highest at 16 km per day during 2012-13 and second highest during 2009-10 at 14 km. Now, with the government laying stress on building roads with increased budgetary allocation of Rs 42,000 crore, Gadkari has claimed that construction of roads during the Modi government will surpass the total length of highways built in previous years.
It was no different when it came to the UPA-2, which claimed that the NDA had built 2,650 km of roads during Vajpayee government while the UPA built 9,570 km during the same period. “ Every political party has played politics with highway construction to make tall claims, since it is the most visible asset which people can see within 2-3 years. They have always preferred comparing apples with oranges,“ said a former top executive of NHAI.
He added that during Vajpayee regime less stretches were taken up for construction since there was less fund availability and there were very few contractors to undertake works. “By the time the UPA-1 came, NH length increased, institutional mechanism was in place to execute projects. Then came private investors and hence highway development gained momentum. So, there should be no comparison,“ the retired official said.
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