Siliguri, Nov. 17: Work on a 38km-stretch of Asian Highway 2 has come to a halt for about a week as the firm building the road and contractors under it are facing cash crunch because of the demonetisation drive.
Part of the 13,177km highway that would connect Indonesia and China passes through north Bengal - a 38km-stretch from Panitanki to Fulbari.
Nirmal Mondal, the project director of AH2, said because of the limit imposed on withdrawal of cash, contractors were not being able to make payments.
"Due to the ceiling on withdrawal of cash from banks, the contractors are finding it tough to make regular payments, like wages of workers and transportation charges of construction material and ancillary items. The cash crunch has affected the project," he said.
A representative of a construction firm engaged in the highway work said the weekly limit imposed by the Centre was too low to meet even the daily expenses.
"We don't know when the ceiling on cash withdrawal would be revoked as the weekly limit of Rs 24,000 is too low for us. There are firms associated with this project and also with the AH48 project which have to incur daily expenses of Rs 20,000 or more," he said.
Sources said work on AH48 also got affected after Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped and limits were imposed on withdrawal of cash from banks and ATMs.
While AH2 passes through Panitanki (on India-Nepal border) and Fulbari (near the Bangladesh border), AH48's north Bengal stretch is from Jaigaon (on India-Bhutan border) to Changrabandha (on India-Bangladesh border).
For the past five months or so, work on the 38km stretch of AH2 has been hampered.
"About four months ago, work had stopped due to a sudden halt in supply of construction materials, like sand and stones," Mondal said.
Supply of construction material#, or minor minerals, had stopped following a PIL filed before the National Green Tribunal. Subhash Datta, a Calcutta-based environmentalist, had filed the suit stating that such materials were being mined from the riverbeds of north Bengal in an indiscriminate manner. The tribunal had instructed the state and administrative officials of the districts to file affidavits on the issue and the state had passed two bills on mining of minor minerals and regularised the process by auctioning off specific areas of riverbeds to prevent illegal lifting of materials. The supply resumed in the third week of October.
"For the past three weeks or so, we have been getting these materials. The supply resumed (as mining started) in some rivers like the Balason. But materials are yet to be supplied from the Mechi river (on the boundary of India and Nepal) to sites at Naxalbari and Panitanki," Mondal said.
Since July, there hasn't been much progress on the highway, which is scheduled to be ready by November, 2017.
"Considering the current state of affairs, we feel that it would be tough for us to meet the deadline," an official associated with the project said.
The estimated cost was Rs 427.29 crore and the state has sought an additional Rs 80 crore for the road. The Centre is yet to approve it.