New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS): Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday targeted the government over the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) report highlighting the alleged irregularities in construction of national highways saying that BJP's corruption is taking the nation's highway to hell.
He also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look within before talking about corruption against his opponents.
In a tweet, Kharge said: "BJP's corruption and loot are taking the nation on a highway to hell. In a scathing report against Modi government, CAG has pointed that Bharatmala Pariyojana is being built with -- innumerable deficiencies, non-compliance of outcome parameters, clear violation of tender bidding process, and huge funding mismanagement."
The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said: "One of the stark examples of the fraud, in this scheme, is the Dwarka Expressway. CAG has exposed that cost of this project was originally estimated at Rs 528.8 crore but later zoomed to Rs 7,287.2 crore -- a whopping 1,278 per cent increase.
"Dwarka Expressway was appraised and approved without any detailed project report. The planned toll rates shall hinder the recovery of capital cost of the project and result in undue financial burden on commuters," Kharge said.
He said that lane configurations of Dwarka-Expressway were determined without analysing the development of nearby competing infrastructure. Construction was done with suboptimal specifications.
"In 2024, INDIA will make your government accountable," Kharge added.
His remarks came after the CAG report on the National Highways and Bharatmala Project highlighted several irregularities in many projects.
The CAG in its audit report on 'Implementation of Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana (BPP-1)' has revealed that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Board approved the Dwarka Expressway with civil cost of Rs 7,287.29 crore with per km Rs 250.77 crore as against per km civil cost of Rs 18.20 crore approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).