Land Acquisition Problems: Highway Projects in Poor State

Land Acquisition Problems: Highway Projects in Poor State

By siliconindia   |   Monday, June 30, 2014

BANGALORE: For the infrastructure and economic growth of a country, land acquisition is required but on the contrary, the acquisition has suffered a series of consequences. Several disputes have been running in the Supreme Court, there is a serious imbalance between the management of the highway projects.

The number of kilometers of national highways granted for construction by NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) has gone down since 2011-12 which is also marked by the fall of expenditure by the central government on highway that is rs26, 496.50 crores in 2011-12 to rs 17,778.95 crores in 2012-13, revealed by Business Today.

In context to the continuous delay in the projects, NHAI took a new initiative and has spent rs6, 870 crore in 2013-14 to acquire land for the future projects and it’s a big leap as it is 49 percent more than the previous year. A senior NHAI official said, “This will reduce the delays in the award of projects as the main issue is acquisition of land. About 8,300 hectares were acquired in 2013-14, against 6,700 hectares at4, 600 crore in 2012-13.”

The downfall in the economy for the last few years has been the key reason for the slow pace for the implementation of projects; other reasons claimed were environment and forest clearances. "The bad patch seems to be over now. The financial markets are expected to rise and bounce back. This will revive interest in the PPP (public-private-partnership) model," added another official.

Looking back, the UPA government struggled with such issues and no new projects were to be launched in that period, moreover the private developers settled on to stay away from the state of affairs.

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