Union minister Nitin Gadkari has given the clearest warning of no tolerance for delay in major infrastructure projects after seeing the snail’s pace at which the Mumbai-Goa highway widening work has been going on.
To make good on his warning, the Union road transport and highways minister announced he would inspect the entire length of the Mumbai-Goa road work in October. In addition to that, Gadkari delivered a final message to contractors to fall in line: he would not attend the inauguration of the project. “Now I want to set a record of blacklisting the maximum number of contractors and taking action against them, as well as suspending officials, within a year. In March this year, he had pointed out that forest clearances have delayed work on some stretches of the highway.
Because they pass through forest areas, “There are a few portions where roads are incomplete.
“I had announced that I would not come for the inauguration of the Mumbai-Goa highway because I felt ashamed that it had been delayed so much,” Gadkari said after opening a six-lane elevated road corridor at Porvorim near Goa’s Panaji. “I would land at the Mumbai airport in October and travel by road to Goa to personally inspect the highway and assess whether the journey has been made convenient for travellers,” he said at the event where Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Union minister Shripad Naik, State Public Works Department Minister Digambar Kamat and Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte attended. Simultaneously, strict action against contractors and officials responsible for delays and shoddy work on infrastructure projects would continue, Gadkari said. I am not going to stop doing this now,” he said. We are taking clarifications first-hand and resolving these issues in coordination with the concerned authorities,” the Union minister had said.
