Govt expedites land acquisition to quicken pace of road construction

NEW DELHI: The government has expedited the process of acquiring land for highway projects in its bid to push the pace of road construction. Till January 2017, the highways ministry has issued final notification for acquisition of 4,100 hectares in comparison to the total 3,800 hectares for which similar notifications were done during the previous two years - 2014-15 and 2015-16.

A highways ministry official said they have already issued notification under section 3G of the land acquisition law where competent authorities will only need to disburse the compensation. Once 3G notification is done, government can allow contractors to undertake construction work at the sites.

Both the road wing and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under highways ministry acquire land for expansion of existing stretches and for building new roads. NHAI had acquired about 9,000 hectares during 2015-16 and it's likely to meet a similar target set for this year. Till January end, more than 7,000 hectares have been acquired, sources said.

Till now non availability of land has been the prime obstacle in highway construction across the country. Highways ministry officials said the pace of getting possession of land has increased after the government decided to rationalise the compensation to land owners. "More acquisition of land will result in rolling out higher number of projects and this will translate into more construction in the next 1-2 years," said an official.

Country's pace of highway construction has touched an all time high crossing 6,600 kilometers till February end, though it's nowhere close to the target of 15,000 km set by highways minister Nitin Gadkari.

The last record was construction of 6,029 km during 2015-16. The highways ministry told Parliament last week, "The slow speed of construction of NHs are mainly due to land acquisition, utility shifting, non-availability of soil/ aggregates, poor performance of contractors, environment/ forest/ wildlife clearance, rail over bridge and rail under bridge issue with railways, public agitation for additional facilities, arbitration/ contractual disputes with contractors etc."

Source - ET Realty