Barapullah highway mission: L-G orders ACB probe into delays

Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V.Ok. Saxena on Tuesday ordered an Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) probe into the “extraordinary delays”, value escalations, and arbitration payouts plaguing the Barapullah Phase-III elevated highway mission, initially sanctioned at ₹1,260 crore.

The mission, linking Sarai Kale Khan to Mayur Vihar Phase-III, stays unfinished eight years after its 2017 deadline, with arbitration claims touching ₹760 crore, based on an announcement from the L-G’s workplace. The L-G has directed the ACB to look at the position of Ministers, senior Public Works Department (PWD) officers, and different companies within the mission’s delay.

“This extended delay has resulted in value overruns working into a whole lot of crores, together with arbitration penalties paid to the contractor,” the assertion mentioned. The probe follows a advice from Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who raised the difficulty throughout a gathering of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) in July.

Conceived in 2011 and awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the 6.2-kilometre hall was meant to ease visitors throughout the Yamuna however has been caught for years. A PWD inquiry committee shaped in November 2023 had blamed land acquisition and forest clearances for the delay, however Mr. Saxena rejected it as “insufficient”.

“A mission supervisor has the first duty to make sure that building proceeds as per schedule and all regulatory clearances are secured,” Mr. Saxena mentioned, directing that accountability be mounted throughout departments.

Financial losses

Multiple arbitration awards have compounded the mission’s value overruns in favour of the contractor. Of the ₹760 crore claimed, ₹255 crore has already been paid. In one main case, an award of ₹121.95 crore plus curiosity and GST in May 2023 was not honoured in time, prompting L&T to maneuver the Delhi High Court, which connected three PWD accounts and ordered a fee of ₹170 crore.

 After years of delays, PWD Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh has now set an eight-month deadline to complete the remaining work and open the hall by mid-2026. The L-G questioned the coverage framework that allows contractors to boost “exorbitant arbitration claims even when at fault”. Drawing parallels with the Bharat Mandapam underpass mission, additionally executed by L&T, Mr. Saxena mentioned comparable inflated claims had emerged regardless of “evident engineering defects that risked nationwide embarrassment forward of the G20 Summit”.