Plan panel flays NHAI on land deal

The National Highways Authority of India has come in for flak from the Planning Commission for saying that it had acquired 48 per cent of the land for the north-south and east-west corridors of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP).

The NHAI had quoted the figure in its monthly report. However, a recent review meeting of the Committee on Infrastructure found that the figure did not pertain to the actual acquisition of land. Instead, they were just "notifications" under Section 3(d) of the NHAI Act.

"It was agreed that NHAI will now have to report both the actual land acquired and the land for which notifications have been issued," a government official told Business Standard.

The highways authority has also fallen short of its targets for the first three phases of the NHDP. National highways comprise about two per cent of the total road network in the country and bear 40 per cent of the total traffic.