"Delays in land acquisition to hit $100 bn investments"

Delays in land acquisition procedures for industrial projects are still threatening to endanger investments worth $100 billion all over the country, according to an Assocham report.

The study noted, 22 major steel projects in the country worth $82 billion are being held up due to land acquisition problems.

The Assocham Eco Pulse (AEP) study titled, “Land Acquisition Scenario in India” mentioned, “Eighteen strangled projects of India Inc to the tune of over Rs 2.44 lakh crore (Rs 2.45 trillion) remained on papers, in the form of memorandum of understanding (MoU) and agreements over the past three-four years”.

“A smooth implementation of these projects could have created job opportunities for at least 164,000 people directly and 270,000 people indirectly,” added the report.

A report released by the steel ministry, 22 major steel projects in the country worth $82 billion are being held up because of procedural delays in obtaining environmental impact assessment clearance, delays in land acquisition mainly due to public protests, and the global economic downturn.  

Endangering the 150 million tonnes capacity addition target of the steel industry by 2015, some of the major domestic and international players affected by the delays include $20 billion ArcelorMittals two steel projects, Essar Steel, Jindal Steel & Power Limited, Posco and Tata Steel.

The government needs to ensure efficiency in remuneration, rehabilitation and resettlement to accomplish the policy objective of fair value based on integrated approach for land acquisition, said Sajjan Jindal, president, Assocham.

The escalating cost of compensation is also forcing up the cost of projects, thereby affecting their viability. He said, a government study stated that at least 70 per cent of 190 delayed infrastructure projects have been stalled on account of problems over land acquisitions, especially the compensation to be paid to landowners.

In most cases, the conflicts over transfer of land have arisen following differences between the Union and state governments on the amount of compensation that has to be paid to landowners.

The report suggested a five-point strategy including to handle the issue include a broad based national political will to ensure smooth and timely introduction of the contentious land acquisition amendment Bill, a National Land Bank for land development and development of waste land for industrial projects to resolve the land acquisition related issues, remunerative compensation for the acquired land to farmers and other land owners based on market price along with equity ownership in projects, state level forums to assess the economic, environmental, social and cultural viability of rehabilitation and resettlement programmes and rehabilitation related programmes for the displaced land owners to be seen as a fundamental responsibility of the land acquiring company in question.