Land acquisition major challenge in implementation of projects

With at least 44 different major projects under different stages of implementation in Odisha the Prime Minister's Office today pointed out land acquisition as a major challange which needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
The issue relating to the implementation of the projects was discussed at a high level meeting here attended by Cabinet Committee Investment (CCI) Project Monitoring Group led by Arun Goel, Additional Secretary Project Monitoring Group (PMG) in the Prime Ministers' Office.
The meeting presided over by Odisha chief secretary A P Padhi discussed on 44 projects under railway, national highway, coal, steel and mines and power sectors.

"Today we discussed on 44 projects. The district collectors view were taken through online. The biggest issue lies with land acquisition and also forest clearance. The collectors have already addressed some of the issues. We have asked them to fix the rest as soon as possible. Overall, the progress has been good and I am very happy about it," said Goel.
Goel also asked the project developers to upload specific problems that they encountered during implementation of the projects on CCI PMG website.
Replying media querries, Chief Secretary Padhi said that the joint exercise has been very fruitful and there has been substantial progress in grounding of the projects. He added that the ground level problems faced in one sector differed from the other. The progress and problems of each individual project was discussed and issues were resolved, he said.

Today's meeting also resolved the problems faced by 12 mega projects including Lingaraj mines, Nuapada-Bangamunda National High way project, Jharsuguda- Barpali-Serdega Rail line project, Garjanbahal coal mine, OPGCL projects, Visa Power Ltd, KVK Nilachal Ltd. NSL Power Ltd and an Ultra mega power project. The concerned agencies were asked to carry on the ground level activities with definite time limits. However, 32 ongoing projects are still facing hurdles before being grounding up in the state.

The NH projects were discussed in detail as all of them in Odisha are running behind schedule. "Land acquisition and environmental clearance are the biggest obstacles in building national highways here. All NHAI projects in the state are behind the schedule," said NHAI CGM & RO, Odisha, Dharmananda Sarangi.

The meeting reviewed the progress of 6 projects in railway sector, 9 in national highway, 2 in petroleum and natural gas sector, 1 in mining sector, 16 in coal sector and 9 in power sector.
Chief Secretary Padhi has set timelines and landmarks for completion of different tasks against each project.
Meanwhile, the e-PMS, an online project monitoring system has been put in place by the central government to monitor the projects involving investment between Rs 100 crore to Rs 1000 crore.