NPAs not worth of vermiculture preserved at NHAI needs to be weeded out: Gadkari

New Delhi: Unhappy over a 'delayed' work culture in NHAI, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said it was time to show exit door to 'non-performing assets' complicating and delaying projects by creating obstacles.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has become a breeding ground for inefficient officials who are creating hurdles and referring every matter to committees and it was time to 'suspend' and 'terminate' them and bring in reforms in its functioning, the Road Transport, Highways and MSME Minister said.

He was addressing a virtual gathering during the inauguration of NHAI building at Dwarka which took about nine years to complete. "Non-performing assets (NPAs) not worth of doing even vermiculture are preserved here and being promoted... I feel ashamed at the attitude of such officials who are carrying such legacies...

"They are delaying decisions and creating complications and at the helm, these are CGMs (Chief General Managers) and GMs (General Managers) sitting for years," Gadkari said while expressing his unhappiness over the delay in construction of NHAI building.

He said the building project for which tender was awarded in 2011, took almost nine years to complete and saw seven NHAI chairmen and two governments.

"Finally it could be completed during the tenure of the eighth Chairman (SS Sandhu) ...A research paper should be prepared on this classic case of delay with photographs of CGMs and GMs who were behind the delays...There should be a ceremony to make their names and photos public like the ministry does to facilitate those who do exceptionally good work," the minister said.

Gadkari said he has been emphasising on widespread reforms in NHAI but of no avail and said when mammoth work for Rs 1 lakh crore Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is planned to be executed within three years, how could a single building take about ten years in completion.

"I feel ashamed...I had personally conducted three-four meetings for it...I have been insisting on reforms...Now as the tradition is, records will be prepared to blame the contractors alone," the minister said and warned officials to mend

their ways.