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NEW DELHI: The government would ensure that all national highway projects being executed by the beleaguered Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Services (ILFS) are completed within specified timelines, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told ET.
“No project will be stuck and we will be playing the role of a facilitator, wherever possible.
The NHAI will pitch in to get the projects moving,” he said.
“We can’t let the infrastructure sector suffer because of this.
It could lead to a pre-2014 situation when around 400 important highway projects got stuck because the government of that time was not willing to come out with a solution,” Gadkari added.
When asked whether government roads builder NHAI would take over some of the ILFS projects, the minister refused to comment.
He said, “Let the new board come up with the revival plan… their thinking on fasttracking, along with early resolutions of the on-going arbitration cases.”
The government has already appointed a new, six-member board to get the ILFS group out of its present crisis.
NHAI owes only Rs 425 crore to the embattled ILFS group and the Mumbai-based infrastructure lender and developer has raised claims for about Rs 4,000 crore: The claims are under arbitration.
ILFS and its various associate companies and subsidiaries are undertaking several national highway projects worth at least Rs 15,000 crore.
They include the Zojila tunnel project — at 14.2 km, the country’s longest road tunnel — on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh National Highway at an estimated cost of Rs 6,808 crore, including the land cost.
Zojila pass is situated at an altitude of 11,578 feet.
There has been no progress on the Zojila pass tunnel that was awarded to ILFS earlier this year.
According to a senior government official, the work on the ZMorh tunnel, another important project in JK connecting Sonamarg with Srinagar being undertaken by an ILFS group company, has come to a halt in the last few months because of a funds crunch.
