Sluggish pace in road construction due to bottlenecks: Govt

NEW DELHI: Slackened progress in road building is mainly on account of various issues including delays in environment and forest clearance and land acquisition, Parliament was informed today.


"The progress of construction of National Highways has been slow due to several problems such as land acquisition, shifting of utilities, environmental and forest clearance, as well as manpower and economic slowdown," Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Tushar A Chaudhary said in the Rajya Sabha today.

He said, "In order to expedite implementation of the projects, Regional Offices have been set up by National Highways Authority of India headed by Chief General Managers."

The government has also set up special land acquisition units to speed up the process.

"Projects are also closely and periodically reviewed at headquarters as well as field units," he added.

Recently, environmental clearance has been delinked from forest clearance. Further, Reserve Bank of India has given dispensation to treat the loan to the toll projects as secured loan, he said.