The Hindu Business Line : `Land acquisition process a major hurdle for road sector'

IN order to accelerate the process of road construction, experts have called for higher autonomy to the developer involved and easing up of land acquisition process, among others.

They also said that for enhancing equity participation from financial intermediaries in the road sector, Government has to work out "visible exit" option.

Speaking at a seminar organised by Four-S Services, Mr K. Venkatesh, Vice-President, Larsen and Toubro, said that land acquisition process is a major impediment in road construction and results in cost over-run. "In one of the projects in Orissa, we have lost Rs 22 crore on account of delay," he said.

He added that utility shifting is another major hurdle. While building roads, utilities like telephone cable, need to be shifted for which State Governments need to act as nodal coordinating agencies. "There is a need to devise a dispute settlement mechanism and give more powers to the implementation partner," he said.

The Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Mr Ashok Lahiri, called for improved corridor management. "Most of our road space is lost over time due to lack of maintenance resulting in vehicular parking along the sideways, among others," he said.

Mr Darius Pandole, Chief Operating Officer, India Development Fund (IDF), echoed that land acquisition, environmental and regulatory issues and lack of reliable information act as "challenges in raising equity funding for road sector." Moreover, infrastructure projects should be identified as "secured lending" instead of "unsecured lending" since banks have upper limits for "unsecured lending", he added. IDF is an IDFC asset management company. "We are looking forward to invest in a consolidated entity that has various holding in different projects so that the risk is spread," he said.

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`Land acquisition process a major hurdle for road sector'