In a bid to speed up road projects by removing bottlenecks in the construction of 18 highway stretches in Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, PMO has given a strong push to remove roadblocks for which the PM had laid the foundation stones. The project included Patna-Koilwar section of NH-30 facing land acquisition cost sharing issues. Similarly, in two other sections in Bihar, 40-43% of the required land is yet to be acquired even as work has started. In the case of four-laning of Patna-Gaya-Dobhi section of NH-83 in Bihar, progress is less than 10% even three years after the work was awarded. In its entirety, both the Centre and state governments are jointly working to find a way out since no road can be expanded unless getting the required land. The land issue is also responsible for the slow progress in the case of the 7-km long Pardi flyover project in Nagpur was also resolved. Sources said the PMO has put more focus on the progress of Mumbai JNPT road connectivity project which started in May 2016 and the ongoing works on three packages of Delhi-Meerut Expressway project in the National Capital Region. Though the progress on the second package of this crucial stretch, which involves 14-laning of the 19-km corridor from Delhi Border to Dasna, is only 24%, NHAI officials claimed that they would complete the work in the next one year.
