NHAI gives Rs 350 crore boost to Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch of NH-8

NEW DELHI: The

NHAI

board has approved the infusion of Rs 350 crore to complete the already delayed Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch of NH-8. The widening and maintenance work has come to a standstill as the highway developer has no funds to carry out expansion and even bankers have stopped releasing funds.

The widening work had started in April 2009 and has missed several deadlines. Sources said banks had stopped releasing loans fearing they would not recover their debt that they had already extended to the project.

TOI has learnt that the NHAI board, which has representation from highways and finance ministries, has approved the fund infusion considering that termination of the contract at this stage would create bigger problem. Sources said the project was 90% complete.

“Re-tendering the work will take time and commuters will suffer, who have already faced the worst. The road also needs proper maintenance,” said an NHAI official. He added the fund will be used to complete the remaining three flyovers, building service roads, foot over bridges and installation of crash barriers along the entire 225 km stretch.

According to the approved scheme, NHAI will first recover its interest on the amount it will infuse for the remaining work. “Since serving interest of loans already extended by the banks to this project is also important, we will allow payment of banks’ interest as well from the toll being collected. The remaining amount of the collected toll will be used first to pay back NHAI’s investment,” said a source.

Last October, the government had approved one-time fund infusion by NHAI to revive and complete languishing national highway projects. NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra said this was the best possible solution to finish this languishing project.

He added there are also issues regarding non-payment of toll by multi-axle vehicles at a toll plaza and Rajasthan government would have to compensate for the revenue loss.

Sources said huge number of multi-axle vehicles have skipped paying toll at

Shahpura

by claiming that the vehicles are owned by locals.


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