Nitin Gadkari accuses Naveen Patnaik of shedding crocodile tears

BHUBANESWAR: Amid Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s “don’t shed crocodile tears” jibe at the opposition BJP pertaining to the issue of construction of Brahmani river bridge near Rourkela in Sundagargarh district, Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has said that delay in granting forest clearances by the state government is affecting major National Highway (NH) projects in the state.

In a letter to the CM on Tuesday, the Union minister said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has taken up a new six-lane bridge over Brahmani river near Rourkela as a part of Biramitrapur–Brahmani bypass end section project at a cost of Rs 381.75 crore. Mr Gadkari has also mentioned that he rejected the initial proposal for a two-lane bridge keeping in mind the future growth of traffic and socio-economic importance of this bridge. He further said that delay in granting forest clearances by the government of Odisha has affected major NH projects of about 500 Km length in the state with investment of about Rs 5000 crore.

“You may recall that in our previous meeting on September 27, 2017 in Delhi on development of National Highways in Odisha, I raised this issue regarding inordinate delay from the forest department of Odisha in granting approvals and also delay in land acquisition, due to which major projects of about 500 Km length with investment of about Rs 5,000 crore were not getting started. During the meeting you assured me to resolve all pending issues at the earliest. However, four such projects still remain to be started pending approvals,” Mr Gadkari wrote.

“I may like to clarify that all these projects are delayed for want of forest clearances and land issues,” he added. The Union minister’s letter was sent to Odisha government a few hours after the Odisha CM said the Centre and BJP were shedding crocodile tears on construction Brahmani river bridge near Rourkela.