Ludhiana (Gurvinder sidhu ) MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora has got answer from the Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Jairam Gadkari in response to questions on expenditure on road maintenance raised in the ongoing winter session of Rajya Sabha.
In a statement issued here today, Arora said the Minister answered that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is primarily responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs) and expenditure of about Rs.27,000 Crore has been incurred on Maintenance and Repair (M&R) of NHs during the last five years.
The Minister mentioned in his answer that out of 1,46,195 km length of NH network in the country, damages have been reported in about 816 km length during the current fiscal year.
Development and maintenance of NHs is a continuous process. The conditions of NHs are assessed from time to time by MoRTH and its various executing agencies. The maintenance works on NHs are accordingly taken up from time to time to keep the NHs in traffic worthy condition.
The Government has evolved a mechanism to ensure M&R of all NHs sections through accountable maintenance agency.
The M&R of stretches of NHs, where development works have commenced or Operation, Maintenance and Transfer (OMT) Concessions/ Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Contracts have been awarded, are the responsibility of the concerned Concessionaires/ Contractors till the end of the Defect Liability Period (DLP)/ the Concession Period. Similarly, for NHs stretches undertaken under TOT (Toll Operate and Transfer) and INVIT (Infrastructure Investment Trust), M&R responsibility lies with concerned Concessionaire till the end of the Concession Period. No separate maintenance expenditure is recorded in respect of these NHs stretches.
Further, the Minister answered that for all remaining sections of NHs stretches, Government has taken a policy decision to undertake maintenance works through Performance based Maintenance Contract (PBMC) or Short-Term Maintenance Contract (STMC). Cost of such maintenance works depends on terrain type, condition of road, lane configuration, contract period etc. MoRTH has incurred expenditure of Rs.6,523 Crore towards maintenance on such stretches in last year.
Since accounting of separate maintenance expenditure is not done for a large section of NHs as above, expenditure incurred per km on entire NH network merely based on the expenditure incurred on maintenance contracts does not provide a true picture of expenditure on maintenance per kilometre on NHs in the country.
Arora had asked about the details of funds that the Ministry has allocated for road maintenance in the last five years. He had also asked about the percentage of the national highway network classified as being in “good” or “excellent” condition; and the average annual expenditure on road maintenance per kilometre of highway, and how does this compare to global best practices.
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