Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 31: Despite spending Rs 4050.92 crore and the lapse of over nine years since the award of the projects, the Katra-Banihal railway section is unlikely to be completed within the revised timeframe of 2017-18 and without completion of this critical section the dream of connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country via railway line cannot be realized.
This has been observed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in the Performance Analysis of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Line (USBRL) Project, the report of which was tabled in the Parliament recently.
The only completed leg of the USBRL Project, which is perhaps the most important project taken up by the Indian Railways since independence, is the section from Qazigund to Baramulla. However, this only constituted a rail link within the Kashmir valley and not up to the Valley as was the primary objective of the project.
Though two more legs—Qazigund-Banihal and Udhampur-Katra are going to be completed in March 2013 but the dream of connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country via railway line cannot be realized as the work on important section from Katra-Banihal is still moving at snail’s pace because of numerous difficulties.
The Katra-Banihal section was originally scheduled for completion by August 2007 but the same had to be rescheduled for completion by 2017-18 because of several problems including delay in geo technical studies, acquisition of required land, doubtful stability and changes in designs and drawings.
“The risk on account of curved alignment, greater number of tunnel portals, major/special bridges, doubtful stability and security risk has not been addressed and continue to persist”, the CAG said, adding “though the terms of the contract between Railways and KRCL/IRCON envisaged that land acquired for execution of the project was to be provided by the Railways to the latter, there were huge delays in acquisition of the land for laying of line and carrying out the associated works like construction of approach roads, buildings and protection works. This problem had not been addressed adequately till July 2012”.
In respect of Katra-Dharam part entrusted to KRCL, 273.05 hectare of land was yet to be acquired while as for Dharam-Banihal section being executed through IRCON, 68.74 hectare of land was not acquired till July 2012, the CAG pointed out, adding “works in the Sangaldan and Khari area were affected badly due to this delay. Moreover, lack of adequate planning and a clear time frame for land acquisition/forest clearances contributed to the delay in award of contracts and execution of works and contractor’s claims for idle resources”.
“Contrary to the rules, KRCL, IRCON and construction agencies awarded contracts for construction of tunnels and bridges and proof consultancy though the General Arrangement Drawings of the bridges were not ready”, the CAG said, adding “the proof consultancy contracts in respect of Anji and Chenab bridges had to be foreclosed due to non-finalization of designs”.
The CAG has also pointed out that work on Chenab bridge suffered on account of delay in finalization of Design Basis Note (DBN), revision of DBN mid-way, delay in finalization of design of super structure of bridge, delay in approval of slope stability analysis of main valley slopes and excavation methodology, change in alignment in viaduct, delay in forest clearance and land acquisition.
The work was almost stand still as the contractor had no work front due to non-availability of approved drawings of deck portion, foundations, protective works, earth work in foundations and bearing pedestals, the CAG said, adding even after the lapse of more than eight years, the design of bridge was not finalized till July 2012.
“During the period from 2011-12 onward, the contractor could execute the work to the value of Rs 0.22 crore only. The extended date of completion of contract had already expired on March 30, 2012 but the contractor had yet to apply for its extension”, the CAG said, adding “had the complete geo technical studies been conducted before award of the contract, suspension of work for want of stabilization of foundations, delay in execution of work and resultant arbitration claims amounting to Rs 308.16 crore in respect of this bridge alone could have been avoided”.
The report said that despite spending Rs 4050.92 crore and the lapse of over nine years since the award of the projects to NRCO, KRCL and IRCON and time overrun of nearly 5 years, Katra-Banihal is far from completion. “Considering the changes in alignment and design and drawings in some cases and other difficulties, it is doubtful that this section would be completed within the revised timeframe of 2017-18”, the CAG said.
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