Govt Goes Digital on Project Sanction and Approval for National Highways

The new SoP, which is being implemented nationally this month, has been made mandatory for all work executed through the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), state governments, Border Roads Organisation, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd and MoRTH PIUs (Project Implementation Units).

Under the new norms, e-files are to be created for all highway projects and with all details including name of work and sanctioned cost. This file will be maintained at project zone sections as well as the ministry so that sanction and approval is completed in minutes rather than days – after all other details and sanction are secured online. It has also been decided to onboard the concerned chief engineer to ensure faster due diligence and execution of projects.

Expectedly, the sanction itself will be communicated to all concerned electronically. The Project Zone section will keep a record of all estimates received, processed and sanctioned, including a signed copy of the sanction letter and technical note, etc. in the e-file.

The master access to all the data sets will be with the planning and monitoring zone…After award of a project, data will be updated on MIS and frozen as per the agreement.

Going digital is naturally to speed up the highway sanction process resulting in better execution…Highway development has remained flat for the past few years with construction rising again only in FY24 to 12,300 km. The hope is that the new system will help in further accelerating award and construction of highways. This is required as per the government’s Vision 2047 plan as well, when over 50,000 km of access-controlled and complex highways projects would come up for execution.