New Land Acquisition bill to raise land acquisition costs for road projects

October 31, 2011

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Original The new Land Acquisition and Rehbliltation Bill is expected to increase the government’s spending on land acquisition by up to 30 per cent from the current level of about 8-11 per cent as the road projects are not exempt from the provisions under the resettlement and rehabilitaion part of the Bill.

NHAI spends about Rs. 25,000 crore every year on land acquisition and other related activities.

Land acquisition has always been a major roadblock for road projects. As per norms, NHAI has to acquire 80 per cent of the land for the private developers building roads under the Build operate transfer or BOT route. Most of the delays in road projects have been primarily due to land problems and the new Bill, sources say, is expected to make things worse for the road sector.

Hassles in acquiring land for road projects have been the reason for delays in 30 per cent of road projects. In 2010, after aggressive measures by the then road Minister Kamal Nath, NHAI had managed to acquire 8,533 hectares against 6,000 hectares acquired in 2009. But clearly 2011 is expected to be a bad year.

In fact, NHAI’s land acquisition record has been abysmal in states like Goa, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Haryana with barely an inch of land being acquired in Goa for road projects. With the new Bill soon becoming an Act, it could be a tough road ahead for the road sector.

Source: profit.ndtv.com