The land adjacent to the roads are the main corridor where all utility lines are laid in India in the absence of a separate utility corridor, which are present in Western countries. This crowded and haphazard laying of utility lines on the ‘road land’ has been posing several problems especially when development of roads are taken up.

This has led to serious thinking on enforcing regulations on laying of utility lines and also imposing some fees on the ‘road land’ users for such purposes so that funds are generated, which can be utilised for the further improvement of road infrastructure.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Public Works Department Superintending Engineer B S Balakrishna says that according to the rules the utility lines (water, electricity, telephone etc) are to be laid at the extreme edge of the Right of Way (ROW) and at a depth of about 1.5 mts.

But this guideline is always brushed aside, resulting in the ‘road land’ congestion more by utility lines than by traffic. It further causes chaos whenever it is required to remove these lines in wake of development and extension of the roads.

It is well understood that these lines must be removed by those who have laid it at their own cost when needed, but what is in practice is quite paradoxical. The land owners (government) pay a huge cost for having let the users use the land. The land owners cannot abruptly remove off the lines as it can cause resistance from the people. Taking advantage of this, land users in turn demand huge amount of funds as compensation for vacating the land. 

Citing example of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) project in the district, he says that many other projects in the region too have been delayed due to the pandemonium created by the land users and the difficulties in shifting lines. Taking all these factors into consideration, Mr Balakrishna says that the Public Works Department is now seriously thinking of sending a proposal to the government to introduce Land users fees, which has the potential to regulate the land use.

It may be remembered that Mangalore City Corporation had charged a sum of Rs 15 crore for shifting water supply lines laid on National Highway land. Similarly, Karnataka Power Transport Corporation Limited and Forest Department too raised demands for huge amount whenever there had been a need to shift electric poles or cut trees in the interest of development of roads respectively.

He says that the profits generated by the private service providers is immense and if a part of it is collected as land user fee, it will be of tremendous help in improving infrastructure.

Though the proposal is at the initial stage, it has the potential to bring about a paradigm change as far as ‘road land’ use is concerned.