Parliament Question: National Highway Projects

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 843 ANSWERED ON 23RD JULY 2026 NATIONAL HIGHWAY PROJECTS

843. SHRI K RADHAKRISHNAN:

SHRI KARTI P CHIDAMBARAM:

SHRI BENNY BEHANAN:

Will the Minister of ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS सड़क परिवहन औि िाजमार्ग मंत्री

be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is aware that several National Highway projects across the country, including stretches in Kerala, are facing prolonged delays, cost escalation, and severe inconvenience to commuters due to incomplete construction, poor maintenance and lack of adequate safety measures, if so, the details thereof;

(b) the details of National Highway projects that have missed their original completion deadlines during the last five years, State-wise along with the reasons for such delays;

(c) whether the Government has assessed the financial cost overrun, economic losses, traffic congestion and accidents caused by delayed highway projects and damaged road stretches, if so, the details thereof, project-wise;

(d) whether it is a fact that contractors are often granted repeated extensions despite poor performance, leading to additional burden on the public exchequer and if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether penalties have been imposed on concessionaires/ contractors for delayed execution and if so, the amount recovered so far; and(f) the steps taken by the Government to ensure timely completion of highway projects, improve accountability of contractors, strengthen road safety standards and provide relief to affected commuters? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS (SHRI NITIN JAIRAM GADKARI)

(a) and (b) The State/UT-wise details of NH projects which were sanctioned / awarded during the last five financial years and have spilled beyond their original completion schedule, without attaining any of the various stages of project completion and excluding projects under consideration for termination/ foreclosure are annexed.

The primary reasons for delay in NH projects are issues / bottlenecks relating to land acquisition, statutory clearances / permissions, utility shifting, encroachment removal, law & order issues, poor performance of Contractor / Concessionaire, and Force Majeure events such as Covid-19 pandemic etc.

(c) Cost overrun is not incurred in all delayed projects. If delay is not attributable to the Contractor, price escalation is paid as per contract conditions, which may or may not result in additional cost, depending upon final value of price escalation determined on actual completion of project. If delay is attributable to the Contractor, damages are imposed and there is no additional cost due to delay.

However, during construction, traffic congestion is observed at some locations primarily at major junctions.

(d) The timeline for construction is specified in the project contracts, which is generally kept as 2 to 3 years from actual commencement of the project, but there are provisions in the contract to allow extension of timelines for completion of project.

These extensions are granted strictly in accordance with standard contract agreements, recognizing the delays due tofactors which are beyond the control of Contractor / Concessionaire, such as issues relating to land acquisition, statutory clearances / permissions, utility shifting, encroachment removal, law & order issues and Force Majeure events such as Covid-19 pandemic, Change of Law, etc.

(e) Cumulative penalty of about Rs. 2,732 crore has been imposed upon the Contractors / Concessionaires for delay in execution, against which Rs. 780 crore has been recovered, over the last three financial year.

(f) In order to ensure timely completion of NH projects, the Government has undertaken various initiatives. These include streamlining and expediting land acquisition using “Bhoomirashi” portal and GIS-based Land Acquisition Plan, revamping “Parivesh” Portal to facilitate faster forest and environmental clearances, enabling online approval of General Arrangement Drawings (GAD) of Road Over Bridge/Road Under Bridge (ROB/RUB) from the Railways, and leveraging the mechanism of review and resolution of bottlenecks / hindrances in ongoing projects, in active collaboration with the State Governments and other stakeholders. Railways has also launched a web portal for Railway related clearances with defined timelines for various approvals.

The Government has put in place a strong framework using multiple mechanisms for monitoring project progress and contractor inefficiencies. Regular review meetings are conducted at various levels with stakeholders to assess project progress, and critical projects, such as those delayed by more than three years or pending for award / appointment.

Further, many State Governments conduct coordination meetings led by the Chief Secretary to resolve issues affecting project execution. Projects where issues remain unresolved are escalated for further review through the Project Monitoring Group and “PRAGATI”.ANNEXURE ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) and (b) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 843 ANSWERED ON 23RD JULY, 2026 ASKED BYSHRI K RADHAKRISHNAN, SHRI KARTI P CHIDAMBARAM AND SHRI BENNY BEHANAN REGARDING NATIONAL HIGHWAY PROJECTS The State/UT-wise details of NH projects which were sanctioned / awarded during the last five financial years and have spilled beyond their original completion schedule, without attaining any of the various stages of project completion and excluding projects under consideration for termination/ foreclosure.

No. of Projects spilled Sr.

State/UT beyond original completion No. schedule 1 Andhra Pradesh 38 2 Arunachal Pradesh 3 3 Assam 25 4 Bihar 22 5 Chhattisgarh 12 6 Goa 6 7 Gujarat 13 8 Haryana 10 9 Himachal Pradesh 12 10 Jharkhand 15 11 Karnataka 37 12 Kerala 11 13 Madhya Pradesh 33 14 Maharashtra 51 15 Manipur 13No. of Projects spilled Sr.

State/UT beyond original completion No. schedule 16 Meghalaya 3 17 Mizoram 2 18 Nagaland 14 19 Odisha 20 20 Punjab 20 21 Rajasthan 12 22 Sikkim 4 23 Tamil Nadu 18 24 Telangana 25 25 Tripura 4 26 Uttar Pradesh 39 27 Uttarakhand 27 28 West Bengal 13 29 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 3 30 Jammu & Kashmir 21 31 Ladakh 1 *****