Nitin Gadkari lauds MEIL for saving 5,000 cr

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari lauded Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) for a project being implemented for the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. He visited the project site a few months ago. In Lok Sabha, he said that, several projects were constructed with transparency in a time-bound manner yielding definite results.

Recalling a workshop for the construction of Zojila Tunnel, Gadkari said: "I am neither an engineer nor am I an auditor to understand the techno-economic estimation for an 18-km bidirectional tunnel at Zojilla pass in the Himalayas that connects Srinagar and Ladakh. Therefore, we invited experts. Several companies from across the globe, including some from Norway, participated in the workshop."

"With technical and financial calculations, they proposed an estimation of Rs12,000 crore towards the cost of the project. We invited tenders and MEIL from Hyderabad got the contract. Today, I am very happy and proud to say that by handing over the contract to the MEIL, the government could save Rs5,000 crore on the estimated cost," he said. The MEIL has already completed five km of the tunnel works on the West portal and one km of tunnel boring on the East portal. The project is of strategic importance to India. The company has been executing the works in the most precarious weather conditions, for the last winter season witnessed temperatures dipping to as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius.