National Highways Authority of India set to seal Plan-I land deals

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has acquired more than 50% of the land required for construction of highways in the Work Plan-I, which envisages awarding highway contracts worth Rs 100,000 crore by June this year. The authority is also in an advanced stage of making amendments in the land acquisition procedures in the National Highways (NH) Act, 1956.

 “The total land required for Work Plan-I is around 30,000 hectare. Of this, we have notified land buys for 20,000 hectares. We hope to complete the land acquisition process for the Plan-I projects in the next four to five months,” said an NHAI official. States such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have acquired the land required for upgrade of national highways in their states.

Land acquisition has been one of the key focus areas of road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath, who had also announced making changes in the NH Act 1956, to empower the land owner get back the land if the highway project does not come up. In this case, the land will vest back to the owner.

“Amendments in the Act have been finalized by the transport ministry and it has been sent to the law ministry for vetting. It will be finalised in the next five-six months,” said the official.  

With an aim to fast-track the land acquisition process, last year NHAI decided to set up 192 special land acquisition units to co-ordinate with the state government and district level officials. 66 such units have been created by the Authority till date.

Commenting on the pace of land acquisition, Vishwas Udgirkar, partner (infrastructure), PricewaterhouseCoopers said, “Land acquisition procedures have definitely been streamlined. But there is a need to increase the pace, as a concessionaire needs to undertake many activities before actually beginning the construction.” The government needs to hand over at least 80% of the land required, while signing the contract with the concessionaire.  

Highway builders group feels that the government needs to look into the manner in which land is acquired for projects. “We need to have lateral acquisition of land, and not a chunk here and there. This will help a concessionaire begin work on a stretch while rest is being acquired by the authority,” said M Murali, director general, National Highways Builders Federation.