Building 20 km of roads a day difficult: NHAI

Building 20 km of highways a day — UPA II government’s ambitious target — is not sustainable due to reasons like delays in environment clearance and issues of land acquisition, highways authority NHAI said on Thursday.

Building 20 km of highways a day — UPA II government’s ambitious target — is not sustainable due to reasons like delays in environment clearance and issues of land acquisition, highways authority NHAI said on Thursday.

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“There is no point in rushing up with projects where we do not have environment clearance, we do not have land acqusition... We must deal with these projects in a way the private equity gets interested,” National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) chairman RP Singh told reporters.

He said raising equity was a major concern for awarding road projects of 10,000 kms a year, including 7,000 km of national highways. It requires Rs. 90,000 crore investment, of which one-third (Rs. 30,000 crore) should be private equity.