NH expansion: Kerala, Centre in another round of war of words

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has blamed Kerala for not keeping its promise of sharing the 25 per cent expense for the National Highway (NH) expansion.

Speaking about the difficulties in expanding the national highways in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Gadkari alleged that Kerala had backtracked from its promise to bear 25 per cent of the cost incurred during land acquisition for the development of the highways in the state.

Kerala refutes claim 

After Gadkari’s remark, Kerala came up with an immediate response, refuting his claims. Arguing that what  Gadkari said was not factually true, Kerala leaders, including former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, said that the Centre was using the opportunity to show the state in bad light by misrepresenting facts.

Did the Minister twist facts in Parliament? The Centre bears 100 per cent cost of the National Highway expansion in all states, except Kerala because the land is costlier in the coastal state. When the development of NH66, the stretch that goes along Western Ghats from South to North, hit a stalemate, the Oommen Chandy government proposed that it would bear 25 per cent of the cost incurred for land.

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“The national average of the cost of the highway expansion is Rs 25/26 crore per kilometre. The average cost for the same is between Rs 45-50 crore in Kerala. As demanded by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Kerala had agreed to bear 25% of the cost during the tenure of the previous LDF government,” Thomas Isaac, former state Finance Minister, told The Federal.

‘No bill pending’

The consensus between the Centre and the state in this connection was arrived in the meeting held on 15th June 2019 with Gadkari and a Government Order was issued on November 22, 2019. According to this order, the proposed land acquisition cost in Kerala would be Rs 21,496 crore. Kerala has to pay Rs 5,374 crore, which is 25% of this amount. Later, the proposed cost was escalated to Rs 27,076 crore and the state’s share was estimated to be Rs 6,769 crore.

“Kerala government has never delayed the payment. Till date, Rs 5,581 crore has been handed over to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) against the bills produced. This has been done very promptly by the government. In my understanding, there is no bill pending,” Isaac told The Federal.

‘Centre changing goal post’

According to Kerala, the Centre is changing its stand now. The agreement (to bear a quarter of the land acquisition cost) was made specifically for NH66. Now, the Union Minister is making a generalised statement as if Kerala has to pay 25%of the cost for the development of all highways.

“We don’t really understand what prompted the Union Minister to make such a statement in Parliament. The allegation that Kerala failed to pay the required 25% is totally unwarranted,” Isaac said, adding that the statement was an attempt to sabotage the national highway development in Kerala that has been going on swiftly.

The former Finance Minister said that it was unfair to specifically refer to Kerala in the Parliament while making a statement about the challenges in the development of the national highways in the country. “Dragging Kerala’s example while providing misleading and factually incorrect information does not look very innocent,” Isasac said.

‘98.5% of the total land already acquired’

Mohammad Riyas, the Minister for Public Works Department (PWD), said that 98.5% of the total land to be acquired for the expansion of NH66 has been done. According to a reply tabled in the Assembly for a starred question on 4th July 2022, the total land to be acquired is 1,079 hectares. The acquisition process for 1,063 hectares of land is completed and the land price has been disbursed to the stakeholders.

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Having a total length of 1,608 Kilometre, NH66 connects five states: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Connecting Panvel (Maharashtra) to Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), NH66 runs through Kerala across its entire length. The high value of the land in the state is caused by the high population density and the non-availability of land in the state. The rural-urban divide is very thin in Kerala which also keeps the land value high in the state.

Underlining that the NH expansion was the right of the state and not a freebie, Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently reiterated in the Assembly that the agreement was only applicable to NH-66 and the Centre should not expect the state to do so in all similar projects in the state.

Interestingly, Gadkari and CM Vijayan showered praises on each other as they laid the foundation stone of 13 NH projects worth Rs 45,563 crore in the state on Thursday evening, hours after the Minister’s statement in Parliament. They said the Centre and state will work together for Kerala’s infrastructure developments. Repeating his statement at the function in Thiruvananthapuram, Gadkari said that the Centre and state would hold talks on the issue and come up with a solution soon.