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New Delhi: The govt will soon rank states on parameters of quality of land records, ease of land acquisition and their active participation for taking up highway development works. Delay in getting land and poor land records are the biggest hindrances in execution of road projects.“We are planning to carry out ranking of states on quality of land records, ease of acquisition and the support that we get for completing land acquisition. Then we can fix timelines for projects based on the assessment of which parameters a state has fulfilled,” said road transport and highways secretary V Umashankar while speaking at a workshop on effective project preparation and robust monitoring by Build India Foundation.The secretary said there have been instances where issues of missing plots (plots not acquired) came to light after getting project approval and during tendering process. “You come to know about this after 7-8 months. So, a part (a stretch of the project) comes to a standstill. We go through another exercise, which has its own set of complications and then leads to a prolongation issue at a later stage…There is a disease of missing plots. There are specific states that have 100% such problems. So, the land plan becomes a very important element in the entire project,” he added.On project preparation, the secretary said it’s not easy. Giving an example, Umashankar said in the US, which is often referred for expressway development, 38% of all land is owned by federal and state govts.
