WB Govt gets kudos for procuring land for highway projects

The Mamata Banerjee government which has faced criticisms from different quarters over its land policy, today received kudos from the Union Road Transport secretary who said his ministry has got huge support from the West Bengal government over the last one year for procuring land for the highway projects in the state.
"In the last one year we have got huge support from the West Bengal government with regard to land procurement for highway projects in the state," Union Road Transport and Highways secretary Vijay Chibber said here.
"The state government has broadly resolved all issues pertaining to land," he said after flagging off the trial run of a cargo vehicle under the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) sub-regional initiative for uninterrupted cargo movement.

Banerjee, during her days in the opposition, had led anti-land acquisition movements at Nandigram and Singur, following which the Tata Motors had shifted its small car factory to Gujarat from West Bengal.
Chibber said owing to earlier delays in implementation of National Highway widening and construction of new roads, many contractors had abandoned projects due to huge cost over-runs.
"We are in the process of bringing them back to complete the projects," he said.
"The ministry is doing a handholding between contractors and lenders to ensure that these projects are completed," Chibber said.
He said except for one, work in all other projects in the state would commence soon.