Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Sarvey Sathyanarayana spoke about the status of the East – West Corridor project in Lok Sabha recently.
He said the four laning of the entire length of East – West Corridor has been completed except 195 km under implementation and 232 km balance for award.
Main reasons for delays are land acquisition & forest clearance. About Rs 27,000 crore has been incurred on East – West Corridor projects, the minister said.
In order to expedite implementation of the Projects, Regional Offices have been set up by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) headed by Chief General Manager. Powers have been delegated to the Chief General Managers.
Special land acquisition units are also set up to expedite land acquisition. Chief Secretaries of State Government have also been nominated as Nodal officers to expedite construction of highway projects, the minister said.
Recently, the issues of delinking environmental clearance from forest clearance and exempting linear stretches from the requirement of NOC from Gram Sabha have been resolved.
Reserve Bank of India has given dispensation to treat the debt due to lenders, to the extent assured by Project Authorities in terms of concession agreement, as secured loan.
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