Gadkari urges officials not to delay files

New Delhi, May 21 (IANS) Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday expressed strong displeasure at officials taking too much time for highway project clearances, cautioning them against "sitting on files" and causing "unnecessary delays".

"Why are you in love with files. Do not sit on files for so much time. There should be three days limit to dispose of a file," he said at the MoU signing ceremony here between Indian Academy of Highway Engineers (IAHE) and Project Management Institute (PMI).

"Delays impact projects which is not acceptable and records are being prepared to check unnecessary delays by officials," he said.

He asked officials to ensure that international best practices are adopted while preparing project report and said that to ensure quality construction, auditing will be a regular practice.

Further, expressing concern over an alarmingly high number of road accidents in India, Gadkari said the persons behind preparing faulty project reports would be made responsible for those stretches which account for the highest number of road accidents.

He also said it is wrong to accuse drivers alone for every accident, while the highest number of accidents take place due to faulty road engineering.

The central government has decided to use 10 percent of the Rs.9,000 crore central road fund to fix accident spots identified, he added.