Bhubaneswar: Amid the political slugfest over the delay in the construction of a second bridge over the river Brahmani near Rourkela, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Tuesday made it clear that work will start only after the forest clearance.
This was informed by NHAI member (projects) Anand Kumar Singh after a meeting with Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi here at the secretariat.
“We have discussed about NH projects in the state. Many of them are pending for various clearances.
Projects will be awarded soon after getting clearances from the state government,” Singh told reports.
On being asked if the bridge construction could be taken up without forest clearance, pat came his reply, “Approval is a must for every project.”
Ruling BJD and the BJP at the Centre are locked horns over the issue.
While Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has already written letter to Union transport & highways minister Nitin Gadkari complaining about the delay and has even proposed to build the second Brahmani bridge from state funds, Gadkari has complained about the delay in the forest clearance by the state.
The CM has even argued that there is no need for forest clearance and land acquisition while NHAI argues that the proposed bridge comes under a single tender and single contractor.
As per the NHAI guidelines, work cannot begin unless all requisite approvals are in place.
PNN
