NEW DELHI: The implementation of Moddel Code of Conduct (MCC) has impacted the infrastructure development in the country. As per the monthly report of the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH), only a project of 4km-long road was built in May after the requisite approval of the Election Commission of India. The report was placed before the recent cabinet meeting.

The ministry prepares a summary about various projects and other developments to apprise the Cabinet every month. “Due to the imposition of MCC, projects could not be awarded except one project of 4-km with the approval of the ECI as compared to 382-km during the same period last year,” read the summary report.

The ministry informed that it had constructed 1,288 km of National Highways (NH) till May as compared to 1,465 km in the last year.

According to the report, 77 land acquisition notifications and land acquisition compensation of approximately `683.25 crore was processed through Bhomi Rashi-( Public Financial Management System) PFMS portal. The ministry designed Bhoomi Rashi as a single point platform for online processing of land acquisition notifications to accelerate highway infrastructure development projects in India. Elections were announced in March hence MCC had come into effect.

In the monthly report of April, the ministry constructed 483km of national highways while the total length of road built in April 2023 was 523-kms. The report stated that 88 land acquisition notifications were issued and acquisition compensation of approximately Rs 600 crore was processed.

In Standing Finance Committee meetings in April, three projects of length 22.47 km with total capital cost of Rs 764.38 crore were recommended by the committee for approval.

As per the ministry’s report, in March, work for 8,581-km was awarded against a target of 13,290 km. It stated that the major shortfall was because revised approval of the cabinet could not be obtained for Bharatmala Pariyojana.

The report said that the ministry constructed 12,349 km which is 20 percent more than the length of highways developed during the same period last year. It was the second highest performance as it made a record of building 13,327 km of road including strengthening of 4,900 km in 2021.