Cabinet secy pulls up states for GQ delay

Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi today pulled up errant state governments responsible for delaying the land acquisition process which in turn has led to delays in completion of some National Highway projects.

Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi today pulled up errant state governments responsible for delaying the land acquisition process which in turn has led to delays in completion of some National Highway projects.

At a meeting between officials from the state governments and the Centre on public-private partnership PPP in infrastructure, Secretary road transport L K Joshi singularly pointed out that delays in land acquisition and on shifting of utilities were major factors that delayed the Golden Quadrilateral Project and could become a major problem for all future projects.

He stated the problem states included Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh. While the contracts awarded for the GQ do not assign any liability on NHAI for delays in land acquisition, he said the new model concession agreement for highways would put a huge legal onus on NHAI to complete this process within a stipulated time.

As the process of land acquisition is primarily a state government responsibility, the Cabinet Secretary told the officials that the delay did not 8216;8216;speak very well8217;8217; of the states.

States were informed by the Finance Ministry that a new law was on the anvil to allow investors the freedom to exit projects and bring in new promoters at any stage. 8216;8216;Investors, therefore, needn8217;t fear that they have to lock-in their investments for a stipulated period and would thus give them additional incentive to invest in infrastructure projects,8217;8217; sources said.

Some of the states, like AP, which were present at the meet pointed out that slow clearances from the Centre for viability gap funding were issues that needed to be addressed to ensure that infrastructure projects do get implemented. The case in point was the Vizag water project which the Congress government seems to have put on the back burner as it needs support in the form of gap funding to make it viable.

Among new points of concern, especially for highways, was the paucity of contractors and supervision consultants which was increasing costs. The Finance Ministry is also planning to put together a framework to sensitise big foreign players on PPP initiatives.

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