Land, green hurdles to road projects

Even as the government envisages $1 trillion (`55,00,00 crore) investment in the infrastructure sector in the 12th Plan, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Sarvey Sathyanarayan informed the Lok Sabha on Monday that delay in environmental clearances and land acquisition was proving to be a bottleneck in the smooth construction of highways in the country.

Such delays have already reduced the pace of highway construction from an earlier ambitious target of 20 km a day to barely 5-7 km per day across the country.

Approval for rail over bridges as well as shortage of skilled and semi-skilled manpower and economic slowdown are among some of the roadblocks, he said.