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The Road Ministry has announced an online initiative that will slash the time taken for acquiring land and enable crediting of funds directly to the account of the person, who owns the land on which a road is being built.
Termed Bhoomi Rashi portal, it will make the required land acquisition notification process online. The portal has also been linked with the public finance management system, which will enable flow of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to the land owner’s account.
“About 1,000 notifications were issued last year for acquiring land. This year, with the use of Bhoomi Rashi portal, 900 notifications have been issued since from April 1,” said Yudhvir Singh Malik, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
As a land acquisition strategy, the Ministry has decided that it will acquire land only on one side of the road for widening as it lowers 50 per cent of tree-felling and utility clearance requirements, Malik said.
The process will also lower the cost of acquiring land by lowering the fund disbursal to the States’ account and also by lowering the administrative charges. “Some States used to charge 20 per cent as administrative charges, while some others did not charge at all. For acquiring land, now the Centre has decided to provide 2.5 per cent of amount disbursed as administrative charge,” said Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, speaking at a conference.
Several times, funds required for land acquisition lie with the competent authority of States for long time, while for some States where the funds have to be disbursed, do not have requisite funds, explained Malik. So, the Centre has now decided to have a common account for all States, from where funds can be disbursed to those areas where land acquisition is speeded up.
“When the notification about possession of land (notification 3D) will be put online, the corresponding legacy data (3A notification), which may have been notified in print format, will also be updated online,” Leena Nandan, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Road Ministry, explained. Bhoomi Rashi Portal will enable a total reduction of about 100 days to the process of various notifications, said Nandan.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) already has a common pool of disbursing funds for over a year now.
With this move, Gazette notifications will not be issued on paper anymore. A bidder management system for engineering procurement contracts has been put in place which will make the technical qualification process of bidders online, IK Pandey, Additional Director General, Road Ministry, said.
Plastic waste for road
Meanwhile, Gadkari said Ministries, including Road and Rural Development, will soon issue a combined notification mandating use of 10 per cent plastic and rubber waste for use as construction material, for roads. He also said roads will now be constructed with bitumen instead of cement.
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