The Road Transport Ministry is poised to introduce a new state‐ranking system tied to the “ease of land acquisition” for national highway (NH) and expressway projects, aiming to cut chronic delays in the infrastructure pipeline. The key objective is to reward states that streamline land procurement, helping project execution proceed without prolonged pre-construction bottlenecks.
Under the proposed framework, states will be evaluated on metrics such as the time taken to make about 90 % of land available from the date of project approval. Those with faster performance would gain favorable rankings and could see priority for future NH projects. The government is leveraging historical data from the past five to six years to benchmark performance, though caution remains that political dynamics, such as the distribution of projects in poll-bound states, could complicate implementation.
This reform is born from the reality that land acquisition, a state subject has been among the biggest drag factors for highway agencies like NHAI and NHIDCL. In roughly 20 % of cases, works have been de-scoped or contracts cancelled due to land constraints. To complement this, the Centre is also setting up a training module via LBSNAA, aiming to sensitize district collectors and civil services officers to the nuances of land acquisition.
With sincere execution, this ranking mechanism could drive more consistent performance across states and reduce the frequently encountered “land” hurdle in India’s ambitious highway expansion push.
