The Minister lauded the performance of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh in sorting out these issues and helping expedite the highways projects. States like Bihar and Odisha on the other hand, need to greatly improve their performance in this regard, he said. Following the Goa review meeting, Chief Secretaries of all states have been asked to hold monthly review meetings to sort out problems at their ends.

Mr Gadkari added that faulty Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) have been found to be another reason for delay. “Very often DPRs are made without taking actual ground realities into consideration. It has been decided to compile a list of projects that have been delayed for this reason. The consultants making faulty DPRs will be penalized and black listed,” he said.