Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday backed Road Secretary >Vijay Chhibber’s assertion that banks were wrong to give road developers loans without doing due diligence. However, Mr. Gadkari also extended the blame for this to the previous government.
“He (Chhibber) asked the right question. He said that the banks did not do their due diligence. That is right. But it is also the government of the time’s fault. If land acquisition and environmental clearance was not yet done for the projects, why did the government give tenders for those projects in the first place,” Mr. Gadkari said while speaking at a media interaction at the Indian Women’s Press Corps.
Roads Secretary Vijay Chhibber had on Wednesday, in an interview to The Hindu , raised the issue of a bubble having been created by banks in 2010-12 by giving large loans to road developers without doing the proper due diligence.
“There was a bubble because the banks would give developers money before even the land was made available…. Certainly the banks have a lot of explaining to do. Because it wasn’t just that they allowed funding to happen to these projects which were not yet ready for construction but they agreed to costs and TPCs (total project cost) much higher than what the NHAI had assessed,” Mr. Chhibber had said.
Responding to questions regarding this, Mr. Gadkari said that it was also unfair to the developers to a certain extent to fault them for delays since they did not have the required land acquisitions and clearances in place when the projects were to begin.
During his introductory remarks at the interaction, Mr. Gadkari also spoke about some of the future plans he had for his Ministry, and also highlighted some of the achievements so far.
“We are planning to introduce cement-concrete roads in India. They have a long life, and there is no need for maintenance. We have booked 95 lakh tonnes of cement for this purpose. I am also looking to introduce electronic surveillance at all ports and inland waterways so that I can monitor them in real time,” the Minister said.
Mr. Gadkari also said that his Ministry was in the process of updating the Road Code, which he acknowledged is very outdated. The government is reviewing the Road Codes in the U.S. and the U.K. and will come up with its own version, he said.
The Transport Minister also said that, within two years, most bikes and cars in the country will run on electricity. Towards this, he said his Ministry had approached ISRO to indigenously make low-cost lithium-ion batteries that can be used in cars and bikes instead of restricting their use for satellites.
