NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has come out with its findings of a 13-fold cost hike in the construction of the Dwarka Expressway executed by the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari headed Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under the Centre's Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1.

The CAG earlier this week highlight the exceeding cost of Dwarka Expressway, pointing out that the amount spent on the project has exceeded the amount allocated by 14 times.

According to reports CAG report mentions that the 14-lane national highway which was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in 2017 at R 18.20 crore, has a very high per km cost at Rs 250.77 crore. The 14-lane expressway was sanctioned by the government in order to decongest the NH-48 between Delhi and Gurugram. 

The report has said, "Audit observed that up to 70-75 meters, right of way was required to build a 14-lane national highway at grade. However, for no reasons on record, the project in the Haryana region, where its length was 19 km, was planned with an eight-lane elevated main carriageway and six lanes at grade road, when NHAI already had 90 m right of way and the same was sufficient for building 14 lanes at grade."

It further said, "Due to such massive structures, this project, constructed on EPC [Engineering, Procurement, and Construction]mode, for a length of 29.06 km had sanctioned civil construction cost of Rs 7,287.29 crore i.e., Rs 250.77 crore/km as against per-km civil construction cost of Rs 18.20 crore approved by CCEA."

The Ministry of Road and Transport justified the high cost of the project and said the eight-lane elevated corridor is built with minimal entry-exit arrangements to allow smooth movements of inter-state traffic. The CAG however was not satisfied with the rationale given by the ministry.

Union Minister Gadkari however rejected the auditor's fund mismanagement charge in the expressway project.  Talking at the news channel Aaj Tak's G20 Summit he refuted the allegations of 'high cost of construction' and said that the Dwarka Expressway was not 29 kilometres long as mentioned in the CAG report but around 230 kilometres long, as it had tunnels included in it as well.

He said that according to this fact, contrary to the claims by the audit body, only Rs 9.5 crore was being spent per kilometre. Gadkari also claimed that he had explained this and told the same to the CAG officials, and they had been 'convinced' by the clarification, yet they still went ahead with the report.