Rs 28.28 crore wasted for Devipattinam-Ramnad NH

CHENNAI: By upgrading a 11.05-km stretch from Devipattinam to Ramanathapuram which was a declared National Highway using funds of a state project, the Tamil Nadu government incurred an avoidable expenditure of `28.28 crore, noted the CAG report on the state, tabled in the assembly on Wednesday.Despite the roads connecting Tiruchirapalli-Pudukottai-Devakottai-Ramanathapuram being notified as National Highway 210 by the Union Ministry of Surface Transport in January 1999, a stretch in this highway between Devipattinam to Ramanathapuram had been upgraded by the World Bank-aided Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project (TNRSP). The project was sanctioned in April 2003 and completed in January 2009, and upgrading the stretch that is a National Highway cost the state an avoidable expenditure of `28.28 crore, the CAG report observed.The Project Director of TNRSP in August 2004 asked the Empowered Committee of the project to retain this NH stretch in the state project as evaluation of bids for upgradation was over. The EC obliged to include the stretch in the state project.In its response to the issue, the state government in September 2010 had cited that removing the NH stretch from the project would cause discontinuity in the corridor and not help reduce travel time. The CAG report said the response was not acceptable as the declared National Highway was taken over by the Government of India which had higher maintenance standards than the state highway roads.The report also noted that the state incurred an additional cost of `31 crore with relation to the delayed establishment of the diary-cum-power plant in Thiruvannamalai. Though the Tamil Nadu Co-Operative Milk Producers Federation sought to implement the project on a turn-key basis through the National Diary Development Board (NDDB) in August 2004, the government did not agree. The state government in May 2007 directed for tenders to be called to implement the same, and as no other agency could be found with expertise to handle the work, NDDB was finally asked to execute it.