Land, Forest Clearance Issues Delayed Nearly 500 Highway Projects Beyond March 2025 Deadline: MoRTH
As many as 489 national highway projects across the country are delayed beyond the March 2025 deadline, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
These projects are facing delays owing to land acquisition hurdles, forest and wildlife clearances, railway approvals, and utility shifting challenges.
'Completion of about 489 projects, originally scheduled to be completed within March 2025, are pending due to land acquisition, forest/wildlife clearances, railway approvals, utility shifting, and other issues like contractor's slow progress, force majeure events, etc," MoRTH said in a written reply.
The ministry also said that it is making all efforts to resolve the pending issues in close coordination with the state governments and other stakeholders to complete these projects.
Aam Aadmi Party's Sandeep Kumar Pathak had asked union minister Nitin Gadkari about the projects missing the deadline and the cost overrun.
Explaining this, Gadkari said that cost overrun has been incurred in some of the delayed projects due to various factors like 'enhanced cost of compensation for land and structures, price escalation, Goods and Services Tax (GST) impact, additional Vehicular Underpass (VUP) or Pedestrian Underpass (PUP) on public demand or otherwise".
Changes in General Arrangement Drawing (GAD), design for Road Over Bridges and Road Under Bridges (ROBs/RUBs) to meet the Railway standards also impact the estimated cost, the ministry added.
'However, there is no cost overrun on aggregated basis to the extent of 35%," Gadkari added.
The ministry also explained that if projects are inordinately delayed due to some reasons and further progress under the ongoing contract is not envisaged, the contract is terminated or foreclosed and re-awarded, with or without modification in the project configuration.
Gadkari also informed the House that in order to avoid time and cost overruns in projects and prevent contractual disputes, the ministry issued a policy circular in May 2025 laying down milestones for land acquisition and forest and wildlife clearances to be adhered to by all project implementing agencies for approval, award, and declaration of appointed dates.
The new policy aims to streamline project execution and prevent future delays.
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First Published:
July 30, 2025, 18:56 IST
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