TN's road to recovery amid COVID-19? Highways dept floats tenders worth Rs 12,000 crore
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu may be under lockdown for the last three months but the highways department rather than going on an austerity drive has floated nearly 1,000 tenders for road widening, building of bridges, flyovers and other projects for a sum of around Rs 12,000 crore.
Sources in the highways department told The New Indian Express that immediately after the lockdown, the department floated the tenders which are still active on the website.
These projects, which include widening and strengthening of roads as well as flyovers, are not hugely important when the lockdown is on, said officials on condition of anonymity.
Most of the roads chosen have very little traffic and require petty repair work rather than widening, officials said. "When the Rangarajan Committee is being formed to re-prioritise government expenditure, what is the hurry to float the tenders," said an official.
Interestingly, the tenders were floated after getting administrative sanction from the finance department and technical approval from the chief engineer of the highways department.
An official from the finance department, which had given concurrence for floating the tenders, told The New Indian Express, "Normally highways and PWD call for such tenders based on administrative sanction. As it is capital expenditure, it is incurred over an extended period -- usually 18-24 months. Typically we budget about 40 per cent of the value of the works sanctioned. So the entire tendered amount will not be spent this year."
But officials in the highways department said that the budget may be for 40 per cent but there are spillovers from last year and there is also committed expenditure. "Our view is that these works are not urgent in nature, like water supply etc," said an official.
Meanwhile, finance department officials said the Rangarajan Committee will not go into re-prioritising expenditure. "That is not part of the terms of reference of the committee. It is on medium term measures to revive the economy," said an official.
According to Tenders Tamil Nadu, the state government's e-procurement system, the highways department has a massive 992 tenders that are active. "Work on the projects will not start as early as January next year so why the hurry when the entire infrastructure is being spent on fighting COVID-19," said a highways department official.
But officials in the finance department said that capital works take a lead time to implement. "The actual expenditure incurred will be based on availability of both budget provision and finance department clearance from ways and means perspective. So we are still a long way from actually incurring the expenditure," an official said.
It is learnt that of the 992 tenders, 500 pertain to improvement in riding quality. "At a time when guest workers have left Tamil Nadu, where is the workforce to complete the project," asked an official. The works include Rs 2,000 crore to improve village roads, Rs 6,000 crore for widening and strengthening roads and the rest for building bridges and flyovers, including the 10.1 km Avinashi Road flyover which was sanctioned recently during the budget.
It is learnt that most of the projects are being awarded next month and the chief engineer's office is working round the clock collecting the data, design and preparing tender documents.
After the tenders have been uploaded online, some of the stretches have been bustling with activity as contractors have been visiting the site.
This has kept the engineers also busy. "Why such a fuss when the lockdown is going on and COVID-19 cases are on the rise," an official in the highway department questioned.
But finance department sources said that from a macroeconomic perspective, government works related to expenditure is an important Keysian multiplier when the economy is doing badly.