Labour shortage hits outer ring road work

NAGPUR: Shortage of skilled workers has hit National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI’s) ambitious Outer Ring Road (ORR) project. The work has progressed very little after the lockdown was imposed in March. The revised deadline for completion of the project before the lockdown was year end. But now this target is impossible to achieve.
The ORR between Gavsi Manapur and Kamptee-Kanhan bypass was completed years ago and is open for traffic.The remaining portion has been divided into two packages — 33km-long which covered the stretch from Jamtha to Fetri via Gondkhairi and the 28km-long second one from Fetri to Pawangaon on Bhandara Road (beyond Kapsi). When lockdown was imposed, the first package was about 52% complete while the second was about 44% over. The figures have not changed much.
An NHAI officer said that most skilled labourers were from outside the state and they had gone home when the lockdown had been imposed. “Now, they are afraid of returning to work because Nagpur has large number of Covid-19 cases. Still, we are managing with whatever labour is available. However, work will pick up pace only after Covid-19 threat subsides.”
Even before the lockdown, the project was running behind schedule. The contract period expired long ago and the contractor had been fined. “We could not terminate the contract as we had not handed over the entire land. Now, 100% land required for the project is with him,” the officwer said.
Under the project, NHAI will construct a new 40-km cement concrete four-lane road from Gondkhairi on Amravati Road to Bhilgaon-Sirpur on the Kamptee-Jabalpur section of NH-44 via Fetri on Kalmeshwar-Katol road, Bharatwada, Panjara on Koradi-Chhindwara section of NH 47. It will also widen the 21-km stretch from Gondkhairi to Gavasi Manapur on NH-44 from the existing two-lane to four-lane and convert it into concrete road.
The ORR will also have an interchange with the under-construction Mumbai-Nagpur super expressway. NHAI will construct five railway overbridges, 20 minor bridges and 15 underpasses under the project.
NHAI will levy toll to recover the project cost. Toll will be recovered by NHAI through a private agency other than the one executing the project.