Jalandhar-Panipat 6-laning: NHAI pulls up firm, wants final deadline

With the work on six-laning of the 291-km stretch between Jalandhar and Panipat on the National Highway-1 hanging fire even as the project started a decade back, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has served a notice on the company, Soma-Isolux NH1 Tollway, to give the final deadline to complete the project.

The move comes after the Punjab government took up the issue with the Union road, transport and highways ministry recently. Punjab public works department (PWD) minister Vijay Inder Singla had met Union minister Nitin Gadkari in this regard.

The company was to complete the work within 30 months of awarding of the project. In Punjab, the road passes from Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts.

“We have conveyed our strong resentment against Soma-Isolux for not completing the road in the past 10 years. They have been taking one pretext or the other. Last month, when I took up the matter with NHAI chairman Yudhvir Malik, who is also secretary for road, transport and highways, he immediately ordered to serve notice on the company to give one month to file a reply as till when the project will be completed,” Singla told HT.

“The NHAI chairman has assured that if the company fails to meet the deadline this time, stern action will be initiated against it,” he said.

The Soma-Isolux NH1 Tollway, a consortium of Spanish company Isolux Corsan and its Indian partner Soma Enterprises, was awarded the contract and an agreement for the ₹4,500-crore project was signed in 2008 on the design-build-finance-operate (DBFO) basis with a concession period of 15 years.

“The company has missed several deadlines and all other national highways in Punjab started after the project have already been completed. But Soma takes one pretext or the other to complete the project. This road is lifeline of north India and the company is not taking it seriously,” said Singla.

Company’s chequered past

Of the total 291-km stretch, 175 km is in Punjab whereas the rest is in Haryana. In Punjab, the company is yet to complete work on flyovers in Ludhiana, Phagwara and Jalandhar.

Even as the company has claimed to complete the road, the work is far from satisfactory with reports of the absence of foot-bridges for pedestrians and signages potholed service lanes having appeared in the media. Besides, there are hardly any entry and exit points from the road.

The firm had also moved the Supreme Court requesting to extend the deadline of the project citing shortage of material and a financial crunch. In April 2014, the SC had asked the company to complete the work by March 31, 2015.

NHAI executive director for Punjab Neeraj Verma could not be reached for comments.