Slow progress of construction of National Highways due to various bottlenecks

26 Apr 2013 Evaluate

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has blamed problems including land acquisition, shifting of utilities, environmental and forest clearance, funding crunches as well as manpower and economic slowdown for the slow progress of construction of National Highways in the country.

The government has set the ambitious 8800 km road project target for this financial year, though, the road ministry has achieved only one-tenth of it. Around 20 major highways projects entailing investment of Rs 27,000 crore have been blocked for long due to various reasons including delays in environment clearances and financial challenges.

However, in order to expedite implementation of the projects, the government has set up special land acquisition units to speed up the process. The Ministry of State for Road Transport and Highways has also sought suggestions from different stakeholders regarding the setting up of a much-needed road sector regulator.

Recently, environmental clearance has been delinked from forest clearance, which will speed up the green clearances for various road projects. Further, Reserve Bank of India has given dispensation to treat the loan to the toll projects as secured loan. Earlier the road sector loans was treated as unsecured, as land in road projects is publicly owned and loans taken for them cannot be backed by assets, which makes the borrowing cost higher for the road projects.

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