Team Herald
PANJIM: Union Roads, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that the long and troublesome land acquisition procedures were delaying some major infrastructure projects across Goa and advised the State government to retain retired officials to speed up the process.
“I suggest the State government take some retired officials to fasten the land acquisition process and assure that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will pay them. The State should have more people as the cases and problems related to the land acquisition are the maximum,” Gadkari said.
He said, “There are some problems in maintaining the time schedule. We need the cooperation of the State government to tackle them. The ministry expects cooperation from all stakeholders to complete land acquisition in time.”
He claimed that at some places, there are delays because of Environment Clearances and that the timely completion of any project is important for cost effectiveness.
“Some of the problems in completing the projects are because of the State government and some because of central government’s different departments. We are trying to make it as early as possible,” the minister said.
Gadkari also said that Monday’s meeting on the review of projects was confidential and claimed that the ministry is reviewing 1,200 projects over 27,000 kms costing more than Rs 8 lakh crore.
“Works are going on from Maharashtra border to Karnataka border and we need to fasten the land acquisition process in a bid to become cost effective.” he said
The Union minister also ruled out that the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has resulted in delays on implementation of several infrastructure projects in the State.
“All the ministers are very competent and are giving good cooperation. In the absence of Parrikar, all the people are behaving very responsibly and they are cooperating with us and as of now we do not have any issues,” Gadkari added.
