Panel says prior clearances must before awarding highway projects

To avoid delays in building national highways, the Centre has decided to award road construction work only after securing 80 to 90% of the land  required for the project.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture: “No new project should be launched unless the pre-construction activities have been completed. This means, in case of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, 80% of the land has to be available, and for Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects, 90% of the land has to be available.”

In case of PPP projects, private builders bid for the construction and are allowed to collect toll from the road users for a period of 20 to 25 years. With regard to EPC projects, the government pays the contractor, who hands over the finished project to the government.

“The government took this decision after a large number of projects failed to take off due to non-availability of land or delay in getting clearances from various statutory authorities. Though the ministry had bailed out several projects stalled over the past two years, another 19 projects, involving 1,627 km of the highways, were still languishing. The government is trying to ease the problems, said a ministry official.

The committee, headed by Kanwar Deep Singh, in its report on infrastructure lending in the road sector, recommended that before awarding the project to concessionaire, the ministry should ensure clearances with regard to land, environment, relocation of utilities and rehabilitation are obtained.

The panel suggested that the ministry should set up a dispute-resolution mechanism to remove the hurdles that hinder the road projects.