Despite financial closures improving, land acquisition issues have delayed 60 per cent of road projects. The main reasons can be attributed to the delay in land acquisition and tight liquidity conditions.
“Till date, out of the 24 projects due for completion, 15 projects have witnessed delays in execution,” noted Rajeshwar Burla, Vice-President, Corporate Ratings, ICRA.
The NHAI is in charge of acquiring land for highway projects. Delay in land acquisition widens the gap between the time a project is awarded and when construction starts. ICRA, in its study, pointed out that out of the 117 Hybrid Annuity road projects (awarded from January 2016 to March 2019), 107 projects are witnessing execution delays. This translates to 90 per cent of the projects.
