The woes of investors in highway projects don’t seem to end. The new guidelines issued by the environment ministry, allowing work on non-forest land while clearance for projects involving diversion of forest land is pending, are cumbersome and would not facilitate investments, developers feel.
According to official sources, the developers have written to the environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, roads minister CP Joshi, NHAI Chairman RP Singh and the department of economic affairs in finance ministry, stating that the condition that in order to begin work in non-forest land, the user agency must explicitly provide for a ?technically feasible alternative alignment? for segments that fall in forest land is too difficult to be complied with.
According the new guidelines, the agency (NHAI or the developer, in the cases of highways) in their proposal for obtaining forest clearance should give ?details of all such stretches along with alternate alignments identified to bypass tire forest land should be explicitly provided in the proposal seeking approval under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.?
Developers have cited that as per these guidelines in any of the existing project the developer cannot start construction in the non-forest area. In the past, in case of many projects that had received an environmental clearance and was seeking clearances for forest diversion, the builders had started construction in the non forest area. So, the new guidelines have only compounded the problems, rather than resolving them, builders feel.
As per the new guidelines, the national highways authority of India (NHAI) has to give an undertaking for an alternate route (in 40% length of the diversion), which is time-consuming. Besides, land acquisition will also take more time for NHAI.
?The conditions now say that if any proposal does not NHAI undertakings unless otherwise the forest diversion proposal will not be approved. Along with it, to make an alternate alignment plan it will require fresh survey and land acquisition process which will take years and thus whatever work is already being done or is going on at non-forest land, a part of which might also get abandoned in case realignment,? said National Highways Builders Federation Director General M Murali.
The developers have said that even after completing work in the non-forest land due to this condition they will not get to start tolling as a substantial work will still remain pending. Developers are also skeptical of the fact that given such hurdles, banks may also stop fresh lending to the projects.
?Such delays will create bottlenecks and since banks are already over-leveraged, the lenders would not fund projects any more,? Murali said. The developers want the ministry of environment to allow accepting the forest diversion proposals without asking realignment proposals for the existing projects at least.
The development in roads and highways sector is already lagging behind their target and the Prime Ministers office has pruned the targets of roads awarding in the current fiscal.
