NHAI has no plan for tunnel from Panipat to IGI Airport as reported earlier: Arora

Ludhiana, February 9, 2024: MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora in a statement here today said answering to his questions, the he Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Jairam Gadkari mentioned that no such proposal for construction of tunnel from Panipat to Delhi Airport is under consideration. However, construction of shallow tunnel of 3.6 km in Dwarka Expressway with revised scheduled date of completion as March, 2024, and a 2.3 km long tunnel from Dwarka Expressway connecting Terminal-3 Road of Delhi Airport with revised scheduled date of completion as June, 2024 have been taken up. On completion of Urban Extension Road (UER-II) and Dwarka Expressway, travel time of traffic for Delhi Airport from Alipur interchange of UER- II on NH-44 is expected to reduce from present about 120 minutes to about 30 minutes.

Arora had asked questions on “Quality Testing of National Highways” in the on-going budget session of Rajya Sabha. He had asked whether it is a fact that NHAI is facing issues with quality in construction and maintenance of NH projects; if so, whether it is also a fact that NHAI have asked its senior officials to collect samples of major on-going works during their field visits and get them tested at major Government accredited labs. He had also asked whether Government feels the need to check the quality of works as the contractors are quoting abnormally low prices to bag projects; and if so, whether Government is planning to setup new labs for testing in Ludhiana which can cover testing for northern part of India.

Gadkari answered that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) does not have any plan of setting up of testing labs in Ludhiana. The Minister further answered that quality always remains a top priority of the Ministry. As an additional precautionary measure, NHAI has issued Policy Circular dated November 10, 2023 for collection and independent testing of samples collected during site visits/inspections. 

Arora said the Minister further answered that the quotes of bidders depend on several factors like familiarity with working in project region, availability of quarries, spare resources available with the contractor etc. NHAI has issued Policy Guidelines dated January 15, 2021 for quality inspection of NH projects where the projects were awarded to abnormally low quoted bids.