Land acquisition for roads not a problem: Construction major

New Delhi, Nov 8 : Acquisition of land for capacity addition to India's road network was not a problem but project financing and certain official requirements were, one of the country's major construction firms has said.

"Land acquisition is not that big a problem," said Hindustan Construction Co (HCC) chairman Ajit Gulabchand at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum.

"You don't need huge tracts of land to build roads, but along a length. But there are other issues like project financing and various clauses in the concessional agreement that need to be resolved," he added.

Gulabchand, whose company constructed Bandra-Worli sea link in Mumbai -- India's first sea-bridge road project -- also said investors would look at participating in India's infrastructure development only if the government delivered on what it has been promising for long.

"There are a lot of promises, which we expect the next policy review to address."

In his address at the same event earlier in the day, Road and Transport Kamal Nath had said an empowered group of ministers was looking at revising clauses that kept investors away, even as India was aiming at adding about 7,000 km of roads annually.

Gulabchand also said he expected his company's order book to increase 25 percent to Rs.200 billion by the end of this fiscal.

--IANS