Chennai: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has terminated three projects in Tamil Nadu due to delay in land acquisition by the state government. The projects cost a little over Rs 3,600 crore.
The three projects include four-laning of the Villupuram-Puducherry and Poondiyankuppam-Sattanathapuram stretches along the NH-45 and two-laning of Meensurutti-Chidambaram stretch along Trichy-Chidambaram NH 227. All three projects were taken up under the Centre’s Bharatmala Prayojana (phase – I) under hybrid annuity mode.
While a total of 473 hectares of land was required for the three projects, only 385 hectares were acquired after 18 months from the date of signing the agreements.
NHAI chairman Nagendra Nath Sinha has written a letter to Tamil Nadu chief secretary K Shanmugam, stating that three of the nine projects that were sanctioned in the fiscal 2018-2019 have been terminated.
