Parliamentary body asks Kerala to give land for h'ways

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport has resented over Kerala government's disinterest in the road projects of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the state. The Kerala Government is neither interested in funding road projects through the public-private-partnership mode, nor wants to take up projects, the Committee said. The Committee stated this in Delhi in the context of problems in acquiring land for construction and widening of roads. Kerala government faces land acquisition problems as the State is heavily cultivated, and both sides of roads are heavily constructed and co-habited by people. Kerala has 1,534 km of national highways, which is 2.18 per cent of the total length of the network. The Kerala government has to evolve a middle path between appeasing the general public, bearing burden on the exchequer in terms of rehabilitation and resettlement package, and working with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Union Road Ministry, the Committee said. The Committee said there is abnormal delay in completion of land acquisition process. This implies that the State Government does not want to gear up to the prevailing situation, it said. If the State Government wants Central Government-funded highways for development, it has to evolve a middle path between appeasing the general public, bearing burden on the exchequer in terms of rehabilitation and resettlement package, and working with the NHAI and Road Ministry.