As many as 489 road projects, which were originally scheduled for completion by March 2025, are pending due to delays in land acquisition, forest/wildlife clearances and railway approvals, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, said the government is making all efforts to resolve the pending issues in close coordination with state governments and other stakeholders to complete these projects.
Gadkari said cost overrun has been incurred in some of the delayed projects due to various factors like enhanced cost of compensation for land and structures, price escalation, Goods & Services Tax impact, additional VUPs/PUPs on public demand or otherwise, change in General Arrangement Drawing/design for Road Over Bridges/Road Under Bridges to meet the Railway standards, etc.
If projects are inordinately delayed due to some reasons and further progress under the ongoing contract is not envisaged, the contract is terminated/foreclosed and re-awarded, with or without modification in the project configuration, he added.
Responding to a separate question, Gadkari said national highways are constructed in accordance with specifications of Indian Road Congress.
"The maximum design speed specified for construction of national highways in different terrains is 120 km/h for expressways and 100 km/h for national highways," he said.
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