New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has found instances of irregularities in the award of the Union government’s Bharatmala highway projects.The audit – which covered the period from 2017-18 to 2020-21 – examines planning, financial management, implementation, andmonitoring of 66 sampled projects being implemented under Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana.The CAG report revealed instances of irregularities in the allocation of projects by implementing agencies, in violation of tendering protocols. For instance, in some cases, the successful bidder did not fulfill the tendering condition or the bidder was selected on the basis of falsified documents. Works were awarded in the absence of detailed project reports, or there were faulty project reports.According to the Times of India, the implementing agencies were awarding projects without ensuring availability of required land and forest clearance, which are resulting in delayed commencement and completion of projects.The National Highways Authority of India and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited are the implementing agencies.The CAG also found deficiencies in the appraisal and approval mechanism proposed to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in many of the high cost Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects or fully funded government projects. The Delhi-Vadodara Expressway and Dwarka Expressway could not be assessed either by the CCEA or the highways ministry to be scrutinised at that level.“Even the appraisal and approval mechanism decided by CCEA was also not strictly followed,” the CAG said.The CAG pointed out that there were significant cost overruns. It noted that only 75.62% of CCEA approved length has been awarded while 158.24% of approved financial outlay was sanctioned up to March 31, 2023.The Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana was for development up to September 2022, at an investment outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crore.The Economic Times reported, citing the CAG report, that significant changes made in the scope of projects and cost estimates as well as richer project specifications adopted have pushed up the sanctioned cost of projects. “This has resulted in sanctioned civil cost being Rs 23.89 crore per kilometre (km) as against the CCEA approved cost of Rs 13.98 crore per km and sanctioned pre-construction cost being Rs 8.28 crore per km as against the CCEA approved cost of Rs 1.39 crore per km,” the auditor noted.In another report, the CAG found that NHAI continued to collect user fee in three toll plazas (namely Nathavalasa, Chalageri, Hebbalu in Southern India) during delayed period of construction. This was in violation of rules stating that no user fee shall be levied for the delayed period, leading to higher toll collection from commuters, the business daily reported.