Sir,

This refers to Design Engineer V.N. Prasad’s letter ‘Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway NH 275: A Designer’s Perspective‘ where he has made wide ranging observations in Star of Mysore dated Dec. 29.

NH 275 is a ten-lane Expressway and it has raised a lot of public awareness, expectation and interest. It is due to various reasons including the fact that it has many important cities in its 120-km route with citizens who are educated and politically conscious.

Many important and relevant issues have been highlighted in the letter. He has touched among others, the Detailed Project Report (DPR), geometric design, speed limit and the importance of observing lane discipline for various vehicular traffic.

He has also stressed that it is appropriate that the Team Leader and Resident Engineers are the appropriate persons to give out the statements.

Since I have served as Chief Engineer in the Ministry of Transport, Contract Advisor, under UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and  after retirement worked as the Chairman of five National Highways Tribunals pertaining to disputes on various NHs across India and besides worked as one of the members of the Dispute Resolution Board on NH No. 4, I would like to highlight some major issues in order of priority.

1. Land acquisition and litigation connected with it. 2. Delay in handing over contiguous stretch of land to the contractor. 3. Unexpected site condition due to faulty geo-technical investigation needing changes in DPR. 4. Unforeseen major problems including inclement weather condition. 5. Unrealistic changes due to public pressure like Underpass etc. 6. Coordination linking inspection, approval and payment of bills. 7. Increase  in  Bill of Quantities (BOQ) and its price disputes.

In my perception, if percentage  for the various items mentioned above has to be assigned, Items 1 and 2 which are connected will share 50%. The complication involved including pursuing cases in courts and getting timely verdict is a great hurdle.

Information and Project Monitoring Division under Ministry of Statistics and Programme  Implementation furnishes the statistics of monitoring the infrastructure projects. According to the information furnished to the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) in 2022 lists delay due to land Acquisition and  Environment  and Forest Clearance in respect of road projects.

The rest of the items share 50% in which item 7 can drag on besides pressure of disputes may heavily drag the completion time. I have tried to pinpoint some major issues.

– H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana, Saraswathipuram, 30.12.2022

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