The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has flagged planning and execution failures in a compliance audit of road and bridge projects for the year ended March 2024. The review found inflated estimates, inadequate project sequencing and poor use of materials in works undertaken by a public works department. A bridge linking Siddarnayawad village with Umblejoog village near Karwar in Uttara Kannada district has remained unused since its completion in January 2022. The structure, built at a cost of Rs. 87 mn, has no approach roads connecting it to the existing road network, leaving it non-operational. The audit said the department had not planned the roads properly through the Planning and Road Asset Management Centre while preparing estimates. It also failed to reuse available excavated soil, wet mix macadam and granular sub-base. Auditors identified inaccurate embankment calculations, excessive tender premiums and departures from Indian Road Congress and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways design standards. Errors in the Schedule of Rates, including incorrect conversion factors, further raised the estimated costs. The audit said the department did not examine alternatives such as cement-treated sub-base, reclaimed asphalt pavement or plastic-based bitumen roads. It classified the bridge spending as unfruitful because land acquisition for the approach roads had not started when the project was reviewed. The department told auditors that landowners had agreed during an initial survey and that acquisition was under way, with approach road construction planned afterwards. The auditors recommended expediting acquisition and requiring confirmation of land availability before future construction begins. The report also examined a queue complex behind the Male Mahadeshwara temple at MM Hills. The work was awarded to Damodar Raju in April 2021 for Rs. 187 mn without a specified completion period. In a separate case involving improvements to the state highway to Hulsur in Aland, the audit called for recovery of Rs. 50 mn in excess payment and attributed the avoidable liability to delayed finalisation.