280 highway projects to be completed before Lok Sabha elections: Gadkari
New Delhi, June 14: Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday announced that he had expedited 280 national highway projects which would now be completed before the Lok Sabha elections next year.
These include 127 National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) projects and 153 ministry projects, which were scheduled for completion by June 2019.
"All these projects are now targeted for expedited completion by March 2019 before the Model Code of Conduct is imposed in the country for the (Lok Sabha) elections," Gadkari told reporters here.
In addition, there are about 100 projects that are going to be completed by December 2018, he added.
The Minister said the construction target of NHAI for 2018-19 has also been revised upwards from 5,058 km to 6,000 km. He expressed confidence that the organisation would surpass this target.
However, he added, the projects of Maharashtra and the Northeastern states remain to be reviewed, and the meeting for this will be held soon.
Gadkari's remarks came after an extensive, state-wise review of over 700 ongoing national highway projects in the country across 20 states.
"During the marathon two-day review held in Goa earlier this week, it was realised that delay in land acquisition, utility shifting, environment clearance and permission for cutting of trees are some of the main reasons for delay of highways projects," he said.
The Minister lauded the performance of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh in sorting out these issues and helping expedite the highways projects. States like Bihar and Odisha on the other hand, need to greatly improve their performance in this regard, he said.
Following the Goa review meeting, Chief Secretaries of all states have been asked to hold monthly review meetings to sort out problems at their ends.
Gadkari added that faulty Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) have been found to be another reason for delay.
"Very often DPRs are made without taking actual ground realities into consideration. It has been decided to compile a list of projects that have been delayed for this reason. The consultants making faulty DPRs will be penalized and black listed," he said.
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Three company directors held in Rs 100-crore investment fraud in Kochi
Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
