Bhubaneswar, March 10: A meeting of the state and central government officials here today revealed that some 44 infrastructure-related projects are stuck in limbo because of land acquisition and forest clearance issues. Among those are six railway and nine national highway projects.

The six railway projects include long-pending projects on routes, such as Khurda-Balangir, Haridaspur-Paradip, Talcher-Bimlagarh and Angul-Sukinda. The Khurda-Balangir line will give rail connectivity to Nayagarh, Boudh, Sonepur and Kandhamal districts, while the other railway projects are also expected to benefit the state enormously as they will connect various mines with industry corridors and ports.

An official source said: "Various land-related issues, such as hurdles in acquisition, and delay in change of land category and diversion of forest land, are hindering the progress of the railway and highway projects."

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)'s chief general manager P. Sarangi said: "Nine national highway (NH) projects, including the Bhubaneswar-Puri NH, Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole six-lane expansion project, the Cuttack-Angul highway, the Biramitrapur-Barkot highway, which passes through Rourkela, the Angul-Sambalpur highway and the Chandi- khole-Talcher expressway, are lying incomplete because of problems in land acquisition and forest clearance."

The other two major pending projects that are caught in land logjam are the Indian Oil Corporation Limited's Paradip-Durgapur and Paradip-Ranchi LPG pipeline laying works.

Land logjam has also affected 17 coal projects of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and nine power projects of various public sector and private companies.

The matter came to the fore during a review meet of the progress of 44 infrastructure projects by the cabinet committee on investment's project monitoring group led by Arun Goel, the additional secretary in the Prime Ministers' Office, in Bhubaneswar today.

Chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said: "The progress and problems of each project were discussed and issues were resolved." He has reportedly set timelines for completion of various tasks related to each of the projects.