Ranchi: The first two phases of ring road fringing the capital, which happen to be a part of the Ranchi-Jamshedpur NH-33 project, have come under a cloud of uncertainty with Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday ordering a CBI inquiry into shoddy and slow widening work of the highway that links the state capital with its industrial capital.
Rolled out in 2007 during then chief minister Madhu Koda's regime to ease Ranchi snarls, the 86km ring road project saw five of its phases under state road construction make brisk progress and two under National Highways Authority of India make no progress at all.
State road construction secretary K.K. Soan said ring road phases I and II were clubbed with the Ranchi-Jamshedpur project and given to NHAI. Both stretch from Vikas Vidyalaya to Rampur along the highway.
A road construction senior bureaucrat said phases III to VI, which they had handled, were ready and VII would soon be complete, but phases I and II under NHAI were virtually unchanged. Prodded if the road department wanted to take phases I and II from the NHAI, chief engineer Rash Bihari Singh said, "The government will take a call soon."
Another senior official in the road construction department said they were waiting for a copy of the court's formal judgment before taking a final call on taking back phases I and II of the ring road. "We want to see the finer details of what the court has said while ordering a CBI probe."
Road construction secretary Soan said the state government had no role in the delay of the total 163km highway widening project, including 128km between Ranchi and Jamshedpur. While blaming stakeholders for the delay, the high court had on Wednesday mentioned "government" but not specified central or state.
"I don't think the state government is being blamed by court. From our end, more than 90 per cent land for widening had been given long ago. We have filed all affidavits asked by the court. The entire dispute is among NHAI, banks and the concessionaire," said Soan.
Regional officer of NHAI Vijay Shrivastava said the NHAI board had now decided to terminate concessionaire Ranchi Expressway (Madhucon). "We submitted a petition in court yesterday (Wednesday). I think we should get a nod on the next hearing date, August 9."
Asked why the decision to sack Madhucon wasn't taken earlier - they started work in January 2013 and failed the June 2016 deadline - he only said, "The board decided to terminate them now. Only 50 per cent work is done (so far)."
Around Rs 1,479 crores had been sanctioned for the highway work, but delays escalated cost by at least Rs 1,000 crore more.
Madhucon's project director B. Ramachandra didn't receive calls from this paper.
A state road construction engineer said widening work of the highway included six flyovers and three overbridges, five major and 45 minor bridges, and 214 culverts. "No flyover or overbridge was built. Work on bridges has been negligible. Barely a few culverts were put up," the engineer pointed out.
Jamshedpur MP Bidyut Baran Mahto in New Delhi on Thursday also apprised Union road minister Nitin Gadkari of the slow pace of NH-33 widening work.
