National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) may have seen a slow down in awarding projects, but its land acquisition activity has picked up.

In the first half of 2013-14, NHAI acquired almost 5,000 hectares, which is 51 per cent more than the 3,300 hectares it bought in the same period last year.

Land in possession is a parameter that indicates the level of preparedness of NHAI for awarding projects.

The land acquired will be used for projects already awarded by NHAI and those that are yet to be awarded. However, the official did not share details whether a larger part of land acquisition was for future road projects or to meet the NHAI’s obligations for land acquisition last year.

“In the first six months of 2013-14, we had about 5,000 hectares in possession and 5,600 hectares with 3D notification, which is the stage when land vests with NHAI,” said a senior NHAI official, declining to be identified. Possession is the final level of land acquisition, and comes after land is vested with NHAI.

In 2012-13, the level of land in possession was 6,800 hectares, which is lower than the current fiscal and in 2011-12. NHAI got 6,800 hectare of land in possession and 8,000 hectare in 3D stage.

Since land acquisition is a continuous activity with multiple layers of interaction with land owners and State Government officials, it would be difficult to pinpoint any specific reason for the activity slowing down last fiscal (2012-13) purely from a ‘taking possession’ perspective, the official said.

EXPENSES

In terms of expenses, NHAI spent Rs 3,000 crore in the first-half of 2013-14 for land acquisition, while it had spent Rs 1,400 crore in the same period last year.

However, the official declined to comment on any average price for land, pointing out that there are wide price variations depending on the area where land is acquired.

In 2012-13, NHAI spent about Rs 4,500-4,600 crore to acquire land, while in fiscal 2011-12, the highway body spent Rs 5,000 crore.

The impact of the recent Land Acquisition Bill on NHAI is not yet clear, as the National Highways Act was out of the purview of the Bill.

Meanwhile, NHAI, which has awarded 500-600 km of highways for development on engineering procurement contract (EPC) basis, expects to award 2,000 km of highways by March.

EPC contracts are road development projects which are entirely Government-funded.

By March 2014, actual work on ground would have begun for the development of 1,500 km of highways, NHAI Chairman R.P. Singh told Business Line.

“Now, we are only awarding highway projects for which we already have 90 per cent land possession,” said Singh.

This is unlike the earlier years when projects were awarded without enough land in place.

CHANGES COURSE

This year, both Highway Ministry and NHAI have changed course away from public-private partnership contracts, after they did not receive any response from highway developers.

Source-http://www.thehindubusinessline.com