PATNA
Bihar’s capital Patna has seen a chain of flyovers over the last one decade, but the recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for the year ending March 31, 2019 has underlined that “flyovers were being constructed without ensuring the availability of drawing and design, tenders were invited before obtaining administrative approval and payments were made prior to technical sanction”.
“Such practices were also reported to the government by the CAG for the year ending March 31, 2010, and audit report (PSUs) for the year ending March 31, 2015. However, the Bihar government is yet to address these significant issues which go against the financial propriety and prudence,” says the report, tabled in the Bihar Legislative Assembly last week.
“There is neither transparency in the selection of consultants nor was payment linked to deliverables/progress of work,” the report says, adding that it resulted in time overrun and undue benefits to consultants in violation of Bihar Finance Rules.
The audit was carried out for three flyovers in Patna — multi-junction interchange at Bailey Road (Lohia Path Chakra), R-Block flyover and Karbigahiya flyover connecting to Chiraiyatand flyover — entailing a total cost of ₹588 crore. All three suffered from time overrun of 19-30 months.
“Scrutiny of records in June 2019 revealed that while planning two projects (Karbigahiya and R-Block flyovers), no traffic survey was conducted to assess the requirement of flyovers. In the absence of any traffic census/data, it could not be verified whether these flyovers were properly designed and whether the number and width of traffic lanes provided in flyovers were sufficient to cater to requirement. It was noticed that the technical sanctions of the projects were accorded on a piecemeal basis as stage wise technical sanction was given. Even after four years of commencement of work, technically sanctioned drawing and design for the entire length was not finalised till December 2019, though agreements were entered into and payments made to contractors,” says the report, rejecting the argument of the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam in June 2020 that tenders were invited prior to administrative approval in the interest of work and to minimise time span.
{{/usCountry}}“Scrutiny of records in June 2019 revealed that while planning two projects (Karbigahiya and R-Block flyovers), no traffic survey was conducted to assess the requirement of flyovers. In the absence of any traffic census/data, it could not be verified whether these flyovers were properly designed and whether the number and width of traffic lanes provided in flyovers were sufficient to cater to requirement. It was noticed that the technical sanctions of the projects were accorded on a piecemeal basis as stage wise technical sanction was given. Even after four years of commencement of work, technically sanctioned drawing and design for the entire length was not finalised till December 2019, though agreements were entered into and payments made to contractors,” says the report, rejecting the argument of the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam in June 2020 that tenders were invited prior to administrative approval in the interest of work and to minimise time span.
{{/usCountry}}In case of Lohia Path Chakra, the audit objected to excess payment of ₹7.44 crore to a consultant appointed on nomination basis without any justification for single-source selection in violation of Bihar Finance Rules, to which the management of the Nigam did not offer any comment.