NEW DELHI: With land acquisition posing a major problem for completion of highway construction, Centre has now decided to get into an agreement with states consenting land availability for early completion of highway work.
The decision has been taken post a review by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari that found that majority of projects are stuck for failure to acquire land and delay in grant of environment and forest clearance.
The ministry will get into an agreement with states that consent for making land available for construction of highways. The Centre has set an ambitious target of nearly doubling available 96,000 km of national highways to 200,000 kilometers by 2019.
The centre has already missed the annual highway construction target of 15000 km in 2016 and Gadkari has advised officers to take measures to complete pending highways at faster pace. The ministry has also decided to get into agreement with private companies for highway construction.
The agreements are likely to signed during the two-day India Integrated Transport and Logistics Summit being organized by the ministry starting May 4.
Gadkari said that India has, for the first time, started planning for an integrated, multi-modal transport system and there is an urgent need for integrated transport planning to bring down the logistics cost in the country.
The summit is envisaged as a platform for all stakeholders in transport and logistics sectors to come together and initiate collaborative partnerships to realize the various greenfield and brownfield opportunities in logistic parks, freight corridors and IT solutions.