High court rap on tardy NH-33 repairs

Jharkhand High Court on Thursday pulled up the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for “deliberately stalling” completion of repair and renovation of the NH-33 stretch between Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

A division bench of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary, hearing a PIL on the tardy pace of construction work on the 125km stretch, observed that the high court was intervening in public interest.

“The matter is being stretched into a long-drawn litigation, which seems to be deliberate. No one seems to be interested in completion of the project,” the bench said.