NHAI debt at a record high of Rs 3.07 lakh crores

But toll collection rose during lock down, asserts Gadkari

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
New Delhi, Aug 9

The Road Transport & Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari may have been making headlines for setting one record after the other in building highways in the country. But he was stumped in the Rajya Sabha by his own party leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

The Rajya Sabha MP and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar asked Gadkari whether the debt of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had touched a record high of Rs 3.17 lakh crores in March 2021 from Rs 73385 crores in March 2017.

Gadkari responded saying that the NHAI debt had risen to Rs 3.07 lakh crores from ₹ 2.49 lakh crores in March 2020.

Further, total borrowing of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) increased from Rs 74,742 crore outstanding as on March 2017 to ₹ 3,06,704 crore in March 2021.

Since 2017, NHAI has availed external borrowing to the tune of ₹ 3,000 crore.

When Modi asked if the toll revenue decreased by 4 per cent to around ₹ 26,000 Crores between April 2020 to March 31, 2021, Gadkari emphatically denied it.

Gadkari said, “On the contrary, toll collection has increased by approximately 3.3 %.

He also informed Sushil Modi that there are 140 Arbitration Cases pending before various Arbitration Tribunals wherein amount of Rs 91,875.70 Crore of the Contractors/Concessionaires claims are involved in adjudication. In addition, Rs 44,600 Crore of NHAI’s Counter Claims is also involved for adjudication.

Further, 240 cases are pending before various courts wherein Rs 21,601 Crore is involved.

He said the interest paid on loans amounted to Rs 18,840 Crore. and a mechanism by which NHAI will do debt servicing and repayment is as under:

The NHAI has been creating valuable road assets which are financially viable. Since 2017, NHAI has constructed a total of 17,042 km of public funded roads, with an expenditure of about Rs.4.08 lac crore. The completed public funded road assets are being tolled. Since 2017, NHAI has serviced its Debt amounting to Rs 74,337 cr, Gadkari said.

Fly on the Wall : Shah scouting for Talent for Rajya Sabha !

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Fly on the Wall:

Shah scouting for Talent for Rajya Sabha !

With BJP president Amit Shah calling on prominent personalities across the country, a buzz here is that some of them may be lucky to find a berth in the Rajya Sabha soon. After celebrities like Sachin Tendulkar (Cricket), Rekha (Film) and Anu Agha (social work) retired, the current dispensation is gearing up to fill these vacancies shortly. The supporters of Kapil Dev are elated and expect that he may be brought to the Rajya Sabha. They say it was Kapil Paji who was responsible in bringing the first Cricket World Cup to India in 1983 and it would be in fitness of things if he becomes the Rajya Sabha MP in the Presidential nominated category. Similarly, noted film actress Madhuri Dixit may also be on the BJP's radar ever since she joined Prime Minister Modi's “Beti Padhao Beti Bachao” movement. The PM expressed his gratitude for the work done by her way back in March 2015. There is also a vacancy in the social workers category and the BJP leadership is scouting for talent who can held the party win 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Lately, BJP leadership's emphasis has been that nominated MP s join the party after being nominated and help it politically. As many as four nominated MP s have joined the BJP so far taking its tally in Rajya Sabha to 69.   

Desert Waterloo for Amit Shah

Rajasthan is turning out to be BJP president Amit Shah's first Waterloo within the party. While he is wooing the friends and foes to strengthen the party for the 2019 battle, the mighty party chief is facing an unprecedented situation in the desert land. Amit Shah never witnessed such a situation in any of the 14 BJP-ruled states where Chief Ministers are bending backwards to placate him. But not Vasundhara Raje Scindia who is refusing to budge. Last week, she was called to Delhi to select new state unit chief after Ashok Parnami resigned in the wake of Alwar & Ajmer bye-poll defeats.  This was the second meeting after Raje vetoed the name of Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat suggested by Shah. Raje wanted a "caste-neutral" leader  and proposed an alternative name of Srichand Kriplani, a Sindhi Punjabi leader whom Shah rejected. It transpires that the name of another Union minister, Arjun Ram Meghwal, a Dalit, emerged. But this was also rejected by Raje for some strange reasons. As part of a compromise, the name of national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupendra Yadav was also discussed. Raje was willing to accept him. But Shah said he needed his services for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi. In fact, the BJP leadership once toyed with the idea of removing Raje herself and install a new Chief Minister. But the tough woman sent a clear signal that she should not be taken for granted and she is not Anandiben Patel who will surrender meekly. The move was abandoned. It transpires that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have to step in to resolve the differences between Shah & Raje.  Amit Shah has now decided to camp at Jaipur as part of his strategy to ensure that the BJP wins Rajasthan Assembly polls. He may not hire premises in Bhopal as earlier planned and monitor polls from Jaipur itself. 

NHAI Chairman's post, Headache for Gadkari 

The premature repatriation of NHAI Chairman Deepak Kumar to Bihar as Chief Secretary has left Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in the lurch. The chairman's tenure is fixed for a period of three years. But the NHAI has seen three Chairmen in a span of 33 months and Gadkari is finding it difficult to cope with the situation. He is racing against time to complete projects before the year is out and show the world that Road Tranport was the only performing sector. He had reconciled to the fact that he had no hand in selecting the chairman of the NHAI and it is done by the PMO. But his worry is that NHAI is destablized in the process. After R K Singh retired in June 2015, Raghav Chandra was given the marching orders within 15 months. His successor, Yudhvir Singh Mallik was was there for a period of 6 months only as he was promoted to the rank of secretary in the Ministry. Then came Deepak Kumar in June 2017 who was also repatriated to Bihar within 11 months. The NHAI Act 1988 (Amended in 2013) says that the post of Chairman should be advertised in at least three national dailies inviting applications and the entire process of selection and appointment takes at least four to six months’ time. Reportedly, the post was not advertised prior to the appointments of Y S Mallik and Deepak Kumar and due process was not followed. Now Y S Malllik has been given the temporary charge and the NHAI is waiting for a permanent Chairman. Why so many frequent changes in a performing NHAI ? No one had a clue. 

Cabinet Committees ? Coming soon 

For the past one month, the website of the Cabinet Secretariat has been displaying a rather unusual sign. Whenever one wants to clicks on “Cabinet Committees” link, it displays “Coming soon” sign. No one has clue as to why the crucial Cabinet Secretariat directly under the PMO has a dis-functional link. When inquired, it surfaced that the PMO never wanted to make any changes in the composition of Cabinet Committees after Arun Jaitley was temporarily divested of the Finance Ministry portfolio due to ill health. All Cabinet Committees were off the radar; be it Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Security or others. Perhaps, the PMO didn't want to change the composition of these committees for a short period. One should hope that Arun Jaitley may be back in North Block sooner than expected.

Lutyen's razing axe to hit the mighty 

The Lutyen's Zone will witness what it never saw before in several decades. The Supreme Court's Monitoring Committee on illegal constructions has prepared a list of 40 mighty encroachers of forest land and government land which includes politicians, corporate czars, judges, and even film personalities. The list is virtually Who's Who of the Lutyen's Zone which includes former Delhi L-G Tejinder Khanna, former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala, sitting BJP Minister in Uttarakhand Satpal Maharaj, owners of Ranbaxy Group and other corporate honchos and in-laws of actor Shahid Kapoor. Even a farm house once owned by a top court judge is on the radar.  As much as 197 acres of land was encroached worth Rs 20000 crores as per acre cost is Rs 25 crores. The religious bodies such as Radha Soami Satsang Beas and ISCKON will also face demolition action.

PM shifts NHAI chief for 'non-performance'

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

“You don’t give grape juice to a Sugar patient” Modi told IAS officer  Raghav Chandra

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Feb 16

The Modi government has sent shivers down the spine of the bureaucracy. If three senior IAS & IPS officers have been sacked unceremoniously for “non-performance”, National Highway Authority of India chairman Raghav Chandra removed in a mid-night order recently.

The sudden removal of Raghav Chandra took even the Road Transport & Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari by complete surprise.

Highly placed sources in the Prime Minister’s Office say that Chandra was responsible for his own sacking. It so happened that the PM called for a review meeting of projects of the NHAI. The PM holds such review meeting one-on-one basis with the heads without the presence of Ministers concerned to review projects.

When the PM asked Raghav Chandra about the progress with regard to the Rs 10,166 crores 14-lane

Delhi-Meerut Expressway project, Chandra reportedly explained difficulties in completing the project in time. It was in December 2015 when Modi had laid the foundation stone of the project not only easing Delhi’s traffic congestion but also to woo the BJP’s crucial vote bank in the Jat heartland and trading community. The total land required for three packages is 348.6 hectares of which 343.36 hectare had already been acquired when Modi laid the foundation stone.

What sealed Chandra’s fate was that he went a step further and started explaining to the PM how the NHAI is completing other important projects in UP.

The PM, sources say was losing his patience and told Chndra curtly, ““If you give grape juice to a sugar patient, can he survive ? The sugar patient requires Bitter Gourd  (karela) juice.” And the meeting ended abruptly. It was 12.30 midnight when the meeting ended and Raghav Chandra’s transfer orders were on the website of the government website next morning.

For Gadkari, it was another shocker as he had seen three chairmen at the NHAI during his three years’ stint. Raghav Chandra was shunted out to an insignificant post as secretary, national commission for Scheduled Tribes. Yudhvir Singh Malik, who was cooling his heels as special secretary in the Niti Aayog, was sent to NHAI. Malik shot into prominence when he banned Nestle’s products as chairman of the FSSAI. The ban was removed by courts and Malik was shunted out to NITI Aayog a year ago. Interestingly, Gadkari had no clue either of Chandra being shunted out or Malik being brought in.

Umang Narula, an lAS officer belonging to the Jammu and Kashmir cadre and CMD of India Tourism Development Corporation was sent back to his parent cadre. It is learnt he was slow in divesting ITDC hotels.