Bhubaneswar, Nov. 8: Delay in land acquisition, disbursement of compensation to evictees and obtaining forest clearance seem to be the major roadblocks to the projects of expansion of various national highways in Orissa.

The issue was in focus at a meeting between A.K. Upadhyay, road transport and highways secretary to the government of India and Orissa chief secretary Bijay Patnaik at the secretariat today.

Disbursement of compensation had not begun in many cases of eviction even after six months of depositing the money to the land acquisition authorities, said an official.

Two years after submission of proposals by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), forest diversion proposals for three projects are yet to be sent to the regional office of the Union ministry of environment and forests for Stage-1 clearance.

“There have been inordinate delay in joint inspection of roads and obtaining palli sabha resolutions for many projects,” said an official.

The permission for felling of trees has not yet been issued for the four-laning project of the highway between Bhubaneswar and Puri.

Upadhyay said: “The land acquisition process for the expansion of the national highway covering a distance of 63km between Bhubaneswar and Puri will be completed by the end of November.”

The stage–1 clearance for forest diversion proposal for four-laning of the highway between Sambalpur and Bargarh was accorded on October 13. However, forest department is yet to furnish the cost of compensatory afforestation to deposit funds by the NHAI.