New Delhi: Ministry of Road Transport will soon start ranking to states on ‘ease of land acquisition’ as the delay in obtaining required land remains the biggest roadblock for national highways and expressway projects. Its purpose is to fix the delay during pre-building and project execution stages.States rankings will also help the Center in giving priority to projects in states that take less time to provide land for construction. Sources said that the parameters are being worked on by the Ministry. One of the best possible parameters is – taken time to provide about 90% of the land from the date of approval of the NH project. This means that the states taking at least day will get better ranking to complete the land acquisition process.The importance of the steps of the ministry is that in the last few years, highway-owned agencies, including NHAI and NHIDCL, have done de-scoped in about 20% of the projects to give certificates to be fulfilled due to the desire of land. There are also examples of abolishing NHAI’s contracts after rewarding them for non-availability of land.“The previous 5-6 years of details may be a reference point for rank states. However, the Center for announcing and approving more NH projects in the pole-bound states has been seen, it remains to be seen that such a criterion will be followed. All this should be tried with honesty.”Since the land is a state subject, the center is almost completely dependent on the state government to get the necessary land parcels, the officials said.Earlier, PM Narendra Modi had instructed the cabinet secretary to prepare a training capsule on land acquisition in collaboration with Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), where civil servants undergo comprehensive training. He had said that this will help in recruiting civil services about this process. The districts have deputy commissioners or collectors as a competent authority for land acquisition, giving them training about the procedure during their time at the institute.
