Tardy pace of strategic Indo-Nepal border road due to poor planning: CAG

A recent audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for the year ending March 31, 2019 has highlighted tardy progress of the Indo-Nepal border road project, which entails 552

A recent audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for the year ending March 31, 2019 has highlighted tardy progress of the Indo-Nepal border road project, which entails 552.9km-long construction in Bihar to provide mobility to Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) forces deployed there.

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The overall responsibility of the project is with the Road Construction Department (RCD), while the Bihar state road construction corporation is responsible for preparation of the detailed project reports (DPRs) for different stretches.

“Due to poor planning, resource management and for want of preparatory work such as land acquisition, DPR finalisation, statutory clearances etc., only 4% of the total Indo-Nepal border road could be completed by October 2020. Besides, even after 10 years, 64% of the border outposts remain unconnected to the main alignment, which was altered by the RCD in 2011 to make it five to 40km away from the international border in four districts. Due to further change in alignment in a few stretches in 2016, at least 15 bridges costing ₹146.06 crore were delinked from the main alignment and remains unutilized. The Cabinet Committee (CC) on security, Government of India, in 2010 approved the project for construction of 1377-km road, which included the 552.9km stretch in Bihar. It was to run parallel to the international border,” says the report, tabled in the Bihar Legislative Assembly on July 29.

The report also negated the department’s claim to have acquired 2497.64 acres of the total required 2759.25 acres land, as it allegedly awarded the contract for construction of road for the entire stretch of 552.29km without ensuring availability of land.

“Acquisition of land was actually not complete, as ownership was legally not transferred to the government due to non-completion of mutation process. In East Champaran, the land acquisition process lapsed completely and delayed application of emergency provision for land acquisition escalated the cost by ₹1,375.33 crore and delayed the project by at least five years,” the report says, adding that instances of excess payment of ₹104.33 crore due to misclassification of land, excess payment of ₹45.36 crore to land owners without ensuring verification of genuine claims were also noticed.

The audit report also pointed out that third party quality check, as required as per CCs instruction, was not carried out. The CAG did not accept the department’s reply that the flying squad of the department was being considered as the third party. “Flying squad was internal to the department and hence not the third party,” the audit noted.