Starting this financial year, the ministry of road transport and highways will accept proposals digitally and sanction them online. An order regarding this has been issued mandating all bodies involved in road-building to become paperless and digital.
The ministry has issued the standard operating procedure (SOP) that will be uniformly applicable to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), state PWDs, and MoRTH Project Implementation Units (PIUs).
“I am directed to state that for ensuring paperless, informative, transparent and accountable sanction process, a detailed SOP has been prepared which needs to be mandatorily followed w.e.f. 01.04.2024 without any exception for works being executed through NHAI, State Government, BRO, NHIDCL and MoRTH PIUs,” the order signed by undersecretary Umrav Meena reads.
As per the SOP, the concerned project zone section at the headquarters will create an e-file for all national highway works requiring the ministry’s nod.
The concerned state governments/PIUs will submit the proposal to the MoRTH headquarters project zone electronically through the e-office or the official email account with a copy to the concerned RO office.
“After receipt of the proposal, a number will be assigned for the received proposal by the Zone… comments/clarifications/ additional information of the concerned RO, if necessary, on the estimates will be obtained on the e-files only for processing the sanction. For this, all ROs will also separately open and maintain a project-specific file and all related correspondences shall be kept in the file,” the order said.
Speaking to News18, a ministry official said that this will not only increase the pace of work but it will also be easier to know where a file is stuck. Also, they said that all the different zones – planning and monitoring – and the concerned officials will have master access to the online files from across the nation on a real-time basis.
“Now, those concerned can see where a particular project file is stuck and it will also improve the pace of project allocation. No official can sit on a file for long without any solid explanation,” the official said, demanding anonymity.
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