NHAI board clears land monetization policy to part-fund land acquisition costs

The board of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has cleared a plan to monetize its land parcels along highways to part-fund the huge land acquisition costs for building roads, a top official at the highway development agency has said.

“The NHAI board has recently approved a land monetisation policy wherein, for highway projects near to urban areas, there will be highway influence zone which would be identified – 500 metres on either side – and transactions which will be recorded in that particular influence zone, a part of that will go into an escrow account which will be used to fund the land cost,” Ashish Sharma, Member (Finance) NHAI told investors during a road show on Monday.