National highway projects lag behind in Odisha, says NHAI CGM

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 10:

The construction and upgradation of each and every national highway project in Odisha are running behind schedule, said National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) CGM & RO Odisha Dharmananda Sarangi.

“Land acquisition and environmental clearance are the biggest obstacles in building national highways here. All NHAI projects in the state are behind the schedule,” said Sarangi while speaking to reporters after taking part in the first phase meeting of the Cabinet Committee at the Secretariat today.

Also attended by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, Additional Secretary in PMO Arun Goyal and the collectors of concerned districts among others, the meeting reviewed the status of 44 different projects of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), Indian Railway, NHAI and few other energy and port projects.

“Today we spoke about 44 projects. The concerned collectors of the districts were also online with us in the meeting. The biggest issue lies with land acquisition. The collectors have already addressed some of the issues. We have asked them to fix the rest as soon as possible. Overall, the progress has been good and I am very happy about it,” said Arun Goyal, Additional Secretary in PMO.

“Today we reviewed the status of 44 projects – mainly railway, national highway, mining and energy related ones. We also discussed the issues that are pending with the State Government and various other agencies and tried to work out the solutions,” said Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.