Addressing a conference organized by industry body, CII, Gadkari said he was surprised how companies do not say anything when bank interests go up, but try hard instead to get land deals at cheaper rates. "Even if the project is of Rs 10,000 crore and the cost of land is just Rs 25 crore, the companies try their level best to get that land for Rs 10 crore or Rs 15 crore," said the minister who is leading the firefight in the face of a combined opposition threatening to stonewall the land bill in Rajya Sabha.
Gadkari said paying a little more to farmers will save the amount incurred due to cost escalation for delay in land acquisition.
He said highway developers have been lining up to get out of projects since he took over. Gadkari said that developers approached him since he took over to terminate contracts after charging penalty. NHAI has terminated 39 projects totaling about 4,700 km and four more are likely to be terminated or cancelled. "After terminating the contracts we bring them back for awarding. In the past months, environment clearances have been sanctioned for 70-80 projects and approvals for about 80 railway bridges have been accorded. We will have no outstanding issues by end of April," Gadkari said.
Referring to the state of Indian developers in the highway sector he put the blame on several reasons including the rolling out of projects during UPA despite having little land and high interest rate on bank loans for such works.
The minister claimed that he is hopeful of achieving the target of constructing 30 km highway per day in the next one year. Since NDA government came to power, outstanding issues have been sorted out in 28 projects and there is a plan to complete 16 other projects who are stalled for want of funds.
Gadkari said that from now onwards no project will be awarded until there is 80% land availability.
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