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Three years later, Akali govt
sits on pile of tall claims, little progress
WSN Network
 The tall claims
by the Akali Dal government of development, no matter how skewed the
vision of what its notion of development was, are coming apart by
the day. The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambni group (RADA) is all but
opting out of the Rs 10,000 crore eight-lane Super Express Highway
project.
Almost all
mega-investment projects envisaged by the SAD-BJP regime have
remained non-starters. Many, in fact, have even been shelved. Three
years are already over, and little is expected in the next two. Most
people remember the months passed by more for power cuts in the
state. Posh urban areas as well as remote agriculture belt suffered
power cuts of 12-18 hours a day. An industrial city like Ludhiana
which has in any case returned victorious a Congressman, Manish
Tiwari, is now completely miffed with Parkash Singh Badal-Sukhbir
Singh Badal duo. Businessmen and industrialists think the extensive
corruption and the severe power cuts coupled with lack of
investment, poor roads, and no one to listen to them, have ended any
Akali dream of coming back to power.
Most of the
projects, including a number of thermal power plants, special
economic zones (SEZ), the Bathinda international stadium, be sides
express higways, were planned by this government itself.
RADA has chosen
to opt out of the Pathankot-Jalandhar-Ajmer highway project due to
the repeated bottlenecks being created by farmers' protests against
land acquisition, which has hindered the preparation of a detailed
project reports.
Recently, in a
board meeting of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB),
headed by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the issue was
discussed. RADA has asked the PIDB to return its Rs 20 crore bank
guarantee. Though the state government officials said they will try
to convice the RADA officials that the government will help them
prepare a detailed project report and also help remove bottlenecks,
the company is learnt to have stated that it will re-furnish the
guarantee money and come back if the government manages to better
the conditions.
The Expressway
is planned to begin from Pathankot and pass through Jalandhar and
Mansa before meandering its way through Haryana and Rajsthan to
reach Ajmer. Of the total 600 km of the highway, 325 km will fall in
Punjab.
The project is expected to open up the trade route to
Ajmer and
facilitate movement of goods from the northern states to the
southern parts of the country and abroad via the Kandla port.
RADA was to
prepare a detailed project report after which the project was to be
evaluated and put up for reverse bidding. This is not the first time
the state government has not managed to handle farmers' protests
against land acquisition, and lost a vital project. It decided to
drop the Rs 5,4000-crore six lane expressway form Mohali to Phagwara
after farmers agitated against it as 3,000 acre land was to be
acquired for the project. Now the government plans to develop the
existing highway into an expressway.
Of the 45
railway over bridges (ROBs) announced, work on only two has been
completed. Twenty-four are yet to get off the ground.
Work on the
state-of-art cricket stadium announced on December 8, 2007 on Chief
Minsiter Parkash Singh Badal's birthday, is yet to begin. The
stadium was proposed to be built on 25 acres in two years at Rs 80
to 100 crore.
Not a single
brick has been laid on the site till date. After the only bid for
the project given by Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) was rejected
(as it was conditional bid), the PIDB has called for fresh bids.
While there has
been delay in the Mohali International Airport, that is the only
project which is likely to see the light of the day, as now the
possession of the land has been given to the Airport Authority of
India by the state government for construction.
17
February 2010
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