85 Under-Construction National Highway Projects Face Delay Of Over 3 Years

New Delhi: As many as 85 under-construction national highway projects are facing a delay of over three years on account of multiple reasons, including legal and land acquisition issues, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The government has undertaken various initiatives to prevent recurrence of delays and cost escalations, Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

"Currently, as per the available data, 85 under-construction National Highways (NHs) projects are delayed by more than three years, attributable to various issues such as bottlenecks relating to land acquisition, statutory clearances/permissions, utility shifting, encroachment removal, law & order issues," Gadkari informed the Upper House.

Other reasons include financial crunch affecting implementation capacity of concessionaire/contractor, poor performance of contractor/concessionaire, and force majeure events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, change of law, etc, the minister said.

Gadkari said the government has undertaken various initiatives to prevent the recurrence of delays and cost escalations.

The efforts include streamlining and expediting land acquisition and compensation using "BhoomiRashi" portal integrated with Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and GIS-based Land Acquisition Plan, revamping "Parivesh" Portal, to facilitate faster forest and environmental clearances, enabling online approval of General Arrangement of Drawings (GAD) of Road Over Bridge/ Road Under Bridge (ROB/ RUB), and leveraging the mechanism of review and resolution of bottlenecks/hindrances in ongoing projects.

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