Land Acquisition Problems: Highway Projects in Poor State

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made a decision for the allocation of new projects and about 90 percent of the land is acquired before the final consideration through the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC). Build Operate Transfer projects (BOT) will cover around 60 per cent of land for assessment and 80 per cent of land will be acquired during the final awarding.

Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari Minister proclaims that his ministry has emerged up with a new plan for the concerned projects this time; highway building will be under Engineering Procurement and Construction model instead of Public Private Partnership.

"Over 260 projects involving about 60,000 crore rupees that were taken up in PPP model are currently stalled because of various reasons. Out of this amount, large percentage has also become Non Performing Assets (NPA) for the banks," said Gadkari.

The Road Ministry is intended of giving 7,000 km worth of road projects during FY2014-15 for BOT and EPC models.

New government is offering and promising new and innovative ideas, which has been done previously also, but it will be keen to know how long these statements from new government will last and will they do what they speak?