CAG asks MHA to pace up completion of much-delayed India-Nepal border roads

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to increase its efforts to ensure speedy completion of India-Nepal strategic roads so that the Indo-Nepal border is effectively managed by the border guarding force and benefits accrue to the general population along the border areas.

The CAG in its 23rd audit report on the Indo-Nepal Border Road Project, submitted to Parliament recently, said that under this project, the construction of the Indo-Nepal border (INB) roads of 1377 km in three states -- Bihar (564 km), Uttar Pradesh (640 km) and Uttarakhand (173 km) -- was taken up in November 2010 with the aim to construct roads of strategic importance along the Indo-Nepal border by March 2016.

The objective of this project was to provide connectivity to the Border Out Posts (BOPs) to meet the requirements of the border population and for better implementation of development initiatives in the border areas. This project was to facilitate faster mobility of the Indo-Nepal border guarding force, the 'Sashastra Seema Bal' (SSB) to dominate the sensitive border more effectively.

The audit report has brought out critical lacunae in the project conceptualisation stage such as planning of road alignment away from the border; non-integration of the project design with the connectivity of Border Out Posts (BOPs) of the SSB with the main alignment of the border roads and the consequent non-inclusion of link roads as an integral component of the border roads project.

The government's top audit body said that the MHA was responsible for providing funds to the state governments for the construction of the roads while the state executing agencies were responsible for completing the project in its entirety such as finalisation of alignment in consultation with the SSB. However, due to the delay in getting the required clearances, the timeline of the project was extended to December 2019 which was again extended till December 31, 2022 by the High Level Empowered Committee (HLEC) set up for construction of roads on stretches free from encumbrance.

Noting the inordinate delay in the construction of the desired length of roads, despite the lapse of ten years from 2011 to 2021, the CAG said that the progress of construction in all the three states was slow. Out of the 1262.36 km of roads to be constructed along the Indo-Nepal border, only 367.48 km of roads (29 per cent) have been completed as of March 2021.

The progress of work, compared to the approved DPRs of 842.86 km was only 44 per cent. Though the process of land acquisition has progressed, matters regarding forest/wildlife clearances (Uttar Pradesh) and other clearances (Uttarakhand) are still to be resolved, the CAG said.

The audit body has recommended that the MHA may consider construction of link roads as a distinct component of the project which will significantly enhance the operational and strategic value of the border roads along the Indo-Nepal border.

It also suggested that the Union Home Ministry may set up a coordination mechanism amongst all the stakeholders to resolve the pending issues of land acquisition and forest clearance to complete the project within the extended time schedule given by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

The MHA has also been advised to strengthen its monitoring mechanism to keep a strict vigil on the utilisation of funds by the state governments while the Home Ministry may engage a third party inspection clause in the MoU to boost quality assurance and strengthen its monitoring mechanism.

Against the 1377 km of approved roads, the road length was revised to 1262.36 km and the Union Home Ministry had approved 27 DPRs for 842.86 km involving Rs 3472.25 crore (revised cost) without ensuring the earlier recommendations by the CAG on various deficiencies like road design, over estimation, provision of connectivity of the BOPs, as 81 per cent of the BOPs remained unconnected to the main alignment of the proposed border roads, the audit body observed.

The report also mentioned that in Bihar, 15 bridges were constructed as a part of the project by the state government at a cost of Rs 146.06 crore by August 2016 without the revised alignment while the DPR of 419.50 km (33 per cent) length of roads in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are yet to be approved as the revised alignment and forest clearances for these stretches are yet to be obtained.

Lack of adequate preparatory work including proper alignment of roads, obtaining of forest and wildlife clearances and land acquisition in time, deficient contract management and lack of coordination between various departments had an adverse effect on completion of the INBR project, which resulted in non-achievement of the intended objectives of the INBRP, the CAG commented.

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