Why are highway projects worth Rs 18,000 crore behind schedule?

Highway projects covering 1,239 km, worth Rs 18,300 crore, awarded between July 2015 and October 2016, have fallen behind schedule. These projects missed the official date for the start of construction, or the so-called appointed date (AD), due to a multitude of factors, including land acquisition delay, pending financial closure and some environmental clearances.  Some of these projects are the road project from Rajgunj in Jharkhand to the West Bengal border section of NH- 32, given to Ashoka Buildcon for Rs 486 crore under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode. Another project, Lucknow to Sultanpur, awarded under the hybrid annuity model (HAM) to Dilip Buildcon for Rs 2,016 crore, is reportedly delayed due to some minor permissions related to deforestation and the estimates for still awaited utilities being shifted. Reports indicate that for PNC Infratech and MEP Infrastructure, the delayed projects constitute 37.2 per cent and 35.1 per cent, respectively, of their total order book. For Ashoka Buildcon, that figure is reportedly 7 per cent, while for Sadbhav Engineering it is 8 per cent and for Dilip Buildcon it stands at 11.5 per cent. PNC Infratech has four projects behind schedule, three of them given under the EPC route and one HAM project. The EPC projects conssit of the routes: Nagina to Kashipur, Koilwar to Bhojpur and Bhojpur to Buxar. The HAM project is from Dausa to Lalsot in Rajasthan that was given for Rs 881 crore. The reasons for these delays are pending environmental clearances and utility shifting. Stage 2 forest clearance is also pending for the project between Koilwar to Bhojpur. For Sadbhav Engineering, the project between Rampur and Kathgodam given under the HAM route for Rs 738 crore, is yet to go ahead with both felling of trees as well as finalising the estimate for utilities to be shifted still