Issues related to land acquisition and environment clearance have hampered the growth of road projects as only 1,007 km of highways were built in the first eight months of current fiscal, the Economic Survey said today.
"There is an urgent need to streamline the land acquisition and environment clearance for infrastructure projects," said the pre-Budget survey, which depicts the health of the economy.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has set an ambitious target of constructing 20 km of national highways per day, translating into a total 35,000 km between 2009 and 2014, and projects of about 3,780 km have been awarded till November, 2010.
Taking note of slow pace of road construction in the sector, the Survey has also called for "bringing in parity between the compensation package admissible under the Land Acquisition Act, 1984, and that applicable to land acquisition under the National Highways Act, 1956, to enable faster land acquisition".
"The price discovery issues could perhaps be circumvented by allowing private parties to bid for supply of the land involved," the Survey said, while advocating that "80% minimum norm for physical acquisition of land before tendering should be strictly enforced through suitable disincentives".
The pre-Budget survey also noted that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is setting up 192 special land acquisition units in various states for expediting the land acquisition process and 122 such units have already been set up.
Talking about expediting forest clearances, the Survey has called for creating a national forest land bank, which could significantly reduce the approval time.
The Survey, however, indicated optimistic outlook for the road, transport and highways sector and said that much delayed projects like the Golden Quadrilateral are also on the verge of completion.
It also noted that the NHAI has revised its strategy for time-bound implementation of the NHDP and formulated two work plans for awarding of about 24,000 km road projects during 2009-10 and 2010-11.
"Under Work Plan-I, so far 73 projects of 6,246 km length have been awarded and bids for a further nine projects are at various stages. Under Work Plan-II, one project of 170 km length was awarded and bids for five more projects are under various stages of implementation," the pre-Budget survey said.