The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) findings of a 13-fold cost hike in the construction of the Dwarka Expressway is erroneous, said a senior official of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, adding that the project was awarded after a “transparent” bidding process.
The CAG report, made public on August 10, on Phase-1 of the Bharatmala Programme for building national highways in the country, stated that the Dwarka Expressway was being built at a cost of ₹250.77 crore per kilometre as against the Union Cabinet approved costing of ₹18.20 crore, which has now been refuted by the Road Ministry. The 14-lane expressway includes an eight-lane elevated road and is being developed as four different packages, and is expected to be fully completed by January, 2024.
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A senior official of the Ministry said that the average cost of the 28.96 km stretch of the expressway was estimated at ₹5,269 crore or an average of ₹206 crore per kilometre before inviting bidders. The person added that the winning bidder quoted a cost of ₹184 crore per kilometre, resulting in savings of 12% over the government’s estimates.
The four packages for developing Dwarka Expressway were awarded after a “transparent” tender process that attracted multiple bidders, said the official.
The figure of ₹18.20 crore for the National Corridors Efficiency Improvement approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in August 2016 which has been cited in the CAG report does not apply to flyovers and ring-roads for which the costing has to be decided at the stage of detailed project report, contended the Ministry official.
The CAG report has also questioned the existence of competing infrastructure such as the Delhi-Alwar Rapid Regional Transit System corridor. The viability of the two projects is inter-related as the source traffic for both is derived from the local traffic plying in NH-48. The Ministry, however, said that the project was deliberated in detail at the level of the Standing Cost Committee, Project Appraisal Committee and the Board of the National Highways Authority of India.
