New Delhi: Over three dozen national highway projects in Punjab have run into major land acquisition hurdles, forcing the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to terminate at least three projects worth over Rs 3,000 crore after developers were unable to start work close to two years after they were awarded the projects, ThePrint has learnt. The affected projects include stretches of key connectivity links like the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway.
The projects that have been terminated are the 25 km-long Southern Ludhiana Bypass, the 47-km Ludhiana-Rupnagar highway and the 45-km access-controlled Ludhiana-Bathinda highway.
More terminations are in the pipeline, including the Amritsar-Tarn Taran spur 2 of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway, said senior NHAI officials from Delhi and Punjab, not wanting to be named. All these projects will be re-tendered. The officials cited instances where, despite acquiring 80 percent of the land, the contractor was not allowed to start work by farmer unions, which are protesting and demanding more compensation for the land owners.
This has set alarm bells ringing in the Centre, with Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari holding a review meeting Monday. “The minister has given a two-month deadline to resolve all issues with land owners and get the projects going,” a senior road ministry official told ThePrint, requesting anonymity.
Currently, of the total 38 ongoing highway projects in Punjab — which have a total estimated cost of over Rs 50,000 crore — work is either stalled or moving at a snail’s pace in at least 30 projects worth over Rs 42,000 crore, a Punjab-based NHAI official said.
The Print reached Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma on phone but did not get a response. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
A second NHAI official said that landowners have been compensated as per provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, at two to four times the market rate of the land. “But landowners supported by the unions are demanding more and refusing to allow contractors to start work.”
The official added that in many of the projects (each project is divided into several packages and awarded separately to the same or a different bidder), the contractor has completed work on three packages but work on one of the packages is stuck due to protests by land owners. “Because of this, the completion of the entire project is held up and we are unable to operationalise it,” the official said.
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Terminated projects
The three terminated projects — Southern Ludhiana Bypass, Ludhiana-Rupnagar highway and Ludhiana-Bathinda highway — are all greenfield (started from scratch) six-lane projects under the Hybrid Annuity Model. Under this model, the Centre bears 60 percent of the cost while the private developer — in this case, Ceigall India Limited — pays the remaining 40 percent, a second NHAI official said.
For these three projects, the selected contractor was given the Letter of Award (LoA) over a year-and-a-half ago. According to the contract agreement, the NHAI has to acquire 80 percent of the land before a project is awarded. The remaining land has to be acquired and handed to the developer within 150 days of giving the LoA. “In these projects, NHAI could not acquire the remaining 20 percent of the land even after a year,” a third NHAI official said.
In the Rs 956-crore Southern Ludhiana bypass, though the LoA was given to Ceigall India Limited in June 2022, work is yet to start because of resistance from land owners. The deadline for the project was June 2024.
In the 47-km Ludhiana-Rupnagar stretch, for instance, in one year, possession could be taken for only an 11 km stretch. Similarly, in the 45-km access-controlled Ludhiana-Bathinda greenfield highway, Ceigall India Limited was given the LoA in November 2021. For both projects, the state government could not acquire 100 percent of the land and hand it over to NHAI over two-and-a-half years down the line.
A fourth project due for termination shortly is the Amritsar-Tarn Taran spur 2 of the Delhi-Katra expressway. One of the NHAI officials quoted earlier said the LoA given to the developer for constructing the Amritsar-Tarn Taran spur 2 of the Delhi-Katra expressway will also be withdrawn shortly, followed by termination, because NHAI could not acquire land for a 30-km stretch in this particular project.
Maximum problems in 4 Punjab districts
Punjab Public Works Department (PWD) officials said they are facing maximum issues in four districts — Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar — where the farmer unions are very strong.
“We are engaging with the land owners and unions and trying to get the projects going wherever possible. But currently, there is an impasse. We have not been able to make much headway,” a PWD official, who did not want to be named, said.
He added that because of the delay in starting work, contractors for some of the projects have left. “Many of them will claim money from NHAI because as per the concession agreement, it is the onus of the NHAI to acquire and give possession of 100 per cent of the land to the contractor.”
A second PWD official said that of the total 1,150-km stretch of highways that are to be constructed in Punjab, so far, the NHAI has acquired 70-80 per cent of the land. “But the problem is that 150 km has not been acquired yet. Because of this, work is stalled in most of the stretch.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)