New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Highways has said that the report that Rs 251 crore per kilometer was spent on the construction of the Dwarka Expressway was not provided to the CAG.
Following the CAG’s report on the cost of the Dwarka Expressway, the opposition has raised allegations of massive corruption in the project. Accordingly, a high-level meeting was held on Thursday under the leadership of Union Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in this regard. Ministry information regarding what was discussed in this meeting has been released. Its description: “There was no malpractice in the construction of the Dwarka Expressway. Instead, the investigation found that the cause of the controversy was that the Ministry of Highways and the National Highways Department did not provide sufficient information to the CAG.
Addressing the meeting, Minister Gadkari was deeply saddened. He ordered that appropriate action should be taken against those responsible for this. Dwarka Expressway is 5 thousand kilometers long. The project was approved on August 10, 2016 under the first phase of the Bharatmala project. An estimated cost of Rs 91,000 crores to implement this scheme. This includes not only highways but also flyovers and bypasses.
Dwarka Expressway also passes through Haryana. According to the CAG report, Rs 251 crore has been spent per km. CAG also mentioned in its report that it has been approved to spend several times more than the average amount of Rs 18.2 crore per km.
However, the CAG did not take into account the cost of flyovers and bypasses on the Dwarka Expressway in Haryana. This is due to department officials not providing proper expenditure documents. 4 contracts were awarded under an average estimate of Rs.206.39 crore per km for road laid in Haryana. However, the road was constructed at a cost of Rs.181.94 crore. Through this, 12 per cent cost has been saved,” said the Ministry of Highways.
