Will Golden Quadrilateral ever be completed?

Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), the ambitious first phase of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP), may never get fully completed after all. After twice revising its deadline from the original December 2004 to the latest December 2006, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials say that till date it is only 94.4 per cent complete.

They say that even by June 2008, only 98 per cent of work under the phase would be completed. The reason— at least two stretches totalling 133 km under the GQ, where the NHAI had terminated contracts of the contractor earlier this year, may take some time to get completed, as these are yet to be re-awarded.

Apart from these, there are 11 other stretches which are at various stages of completion, thus the road transport ministry does not want to set yet another deadline for the completion of these.

With these 11 stretches expected to be completed by June next year, the ministry would consider the phase finished, as it plans to keep the two terminated stretches out of the purview of GQ's completion deadline, sources say.

The 133-km stretch, forming the elusive 2 per cent of the GQ, falls on National Highway 4 (NH-4). When divided into two, it forms a 56-km stretch between Haveri-Harihar and a 77-km stretch between Harihar-Chitradurga.

The work for four-laning these stretches was awarded to a Malaysian-Indian joint venture consisting of UEM (Malaysia) and Esssar Group in March 2002. And it was supposed to end by August 2004.

However, in April 2007, the NHAI terminated the contract alleging slow progress on part of the contractors, and as the matter is subjudice (with the JV partners challenging it in the Delhi High Court), NHAI is yet to re-award it. Re-awarding a contract takes around eight to nine months of time, and in this situation NHAI has accepted the fact that they would consider the GQ finished once the other stretches get over, even if the above-mentioned stretches remain unawarded.

However, considering the fact that the other 11 stretches, falling under different legs of the GQ, are at various stages of completion, the NHAI would have to be proactive in order to complete these on time.

These 11 stretches form 681 km of the total 5,846 km of the GQ. Of these, four stretches totalling 20 km of work left to be done fall on the Mumbai-Chennai leg of the GQ. On the Kolkata-Chennai leg, three stretches totalling 109 km are yet to be completed, while on the Delhi-Kolkata leg, there are six stretches totalling 63 km that are to be completed.

Thus, a total of 192 km of work under these 11 stretches is still lying incomplete. And, if the two above-mentioned terminated stretches totalling 133 km also are included in this, then of the total GQ length of 5,846 km, currently 5,521 km of work has been done.

Moreover, with these stretches, having originally started during 2000-01, when the GQ was still at its initial stages, the cost escalation factor also comes into play. At 1999 prices, the cost of GQ was Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion).

Seven years down the line, now, the whole project is pegged at around Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) at 2006 prices, a 67 per cent escalation in price. As the stretches falling under the GQ have been implemented through cash contract, the NHAI officials say 5 per cent cost escalation has been taken into account according to the contract clause.

However, six of the above-mentioned stretches are being funded by bodies like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC). Funds from these agencies form the budgetary support for the NHDP, and with the price escalation exceeding the contractual limits, the delay in the GQ has also put additional burden on the government.

Thus, even if the ministry considers completing 98 per cent of work under the GQ, the financial burden is something which it will have to shoulder.