Complete All Central Projects Without Delay: Punjab Governor Tells Officials

Governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Monday asked officials to complete all central projects in Punjab without any delay and said that any problems in the implementation of a project should be communicated in writing for quick resolution, an official statement said.

The governor issued the instructions at a meeting at Raj Bhavan here with senior officials from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), railways, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to review the progress of various ongoing projects in Punjab.

This comes two days after Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari wrote to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann saying that the NHAI would have no option but to cancel eight highway projects in Punjab with a total length of 293 km and costing Rs 14,288 crore if the law and order situation in the state does not improve.

In his letter, Mr Gadkari cited two incidents which occurred recently on the Delhi-Katra Expressway. In one incident in Jalandhar, an engineer of a contractor was brutally assaulted and in another incident in Ludhiana, the project camp of the expressway contractor was attacked.

Due to the pending issues related to land acquisition and the prevailing law and order situation in the state, a number of contractors have requested to foreclose contracts and have raised claims against the NHAI.

During the meeting, Mr Kataria directed the officials to complete all central projects without any delay, the statement said.

If there is any problem in the implementation of any project, it should be communicated immediately in writing so that such issues can be resolved on a priority basis with the help of central and state governments, he said.

He said meetings would be held every three months to review the progress of all central projects.

Besides, the governor said that he should be informed about the progress of all projects from time to time, according to the statement.

Mr Kataria also flagged the issue of heavy traffic in Chandigarh. NHAI officials informed him that the construction of a highway connecting Panchkula to Shimla and Majri to Baddi will minimise the problem to a great extent, the statement said.

AAI officials apprised the governor about a proposed road to directly connect Chandigarh to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, it said.

They said the construction of this road would reduce the distance from Chandigarh to the airport by 10 km, it added.

BSNL officials also apprised Mr Kataria about their ongoing projects.

Additional Chief Secretary to Governor K Siva Prasad; Divisional Railway Manager (Railways Ambala) M S Bhatia; Divisional Railway Manager, Ferozepur, Sanjay Sahu; and Regional Officer, NHAI, Bipanesh Sharma were among those who attended the meeting.