New Delhi, March 18 As many as 85 national highway projects under construction are facing delays of over three years due to various 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, according to available data, 85 under-construction National Highways (NHs) projects are delayed by more than three years, due to issues such as bottlenecks related to land acquisition, statutory clearances/permissions, utility relocation, encroachment removal, and law and order issues," Gadkari informed the Upper House.
Other reasons include financial constraints affecting the implementation capacity of the concessionaire/contractor, poor performance of the contractor/concessionaire, and force majeure events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, changes in law, etc., the minister said.
Gadkari said the government has undertaken various initiatives to prevent the recurrence of delays and cost escalations.
These efforts include streamlining and expediting land acquisition and compensation using the "BhoomiRashi" portal integrated with the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and a GIS-based Land Acquisition Plan, revamping the "Parivesh" Portal to facilitate faster forest and environmental clearances, enabling online approval of the General Arrangement of Drawings (GAD) for Road Over Bridges/ Road Under Bridges (ROB/RUB), and leveraging the mechanism of review and resolution of bottlenecks/hindrances in ongoing projects.